


Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

by I_ship_faster_than_fedex_975



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cosplay, M/M, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, eren!neko
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-03-15 01:28:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 26,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3433004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_ship_faster_than_fedex_975/pseuds/I_ship_faster_than_fedex_975
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Over worked, Stressed, And never getting enough sleep. Levi didn't think anything could fix his already screwed up life until...<br/>"Oh, I-I'm sorry." Thinking he ran into a normal kid, he didn't know his life would be forever changed at the words "wait brat."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic so i hope you enjoy:)

I chew on the eraser end of my pencil out of frustration. Work for me just seemed like it was getting worse and worse, the hardest assignments being dumped on me. Just then I recieved a call. I roll my eyes and put it on speaker. "Levi! Are you there?" An over excentric voice screams from the other end.  
"As always."  
"The boss needs you in! Stat!"  
I roll my eyes and stand up, pencil still in mouth.  
"What ever glasses."  
I end the call biting down on the pencil causing the eraser to break off into my mouth.  
Stupid Erwin. Does he not understand how much I already do for him? There's so much that I've recently had to start taking, and finishing, my assignments at home. Like today for instance. I didn't have time for this.

I walk across my room over to the trash can and spit out the small eraser. Ugh, disgusting. I make my way over to my apartment door, but not after grabbing my coat and scarf off the rack. I sigh as I walk out of the apartment complex into the freezing cold. I hate the cold. I hug my arms out of desperation for heat. I speed up on walking to work at 'survey corps editing and photography' which was only about 10 minutes away from where I lived. That's probably why Erwin picks on me the most, because I happen to be the most convenient. We'll see how he likes it when i finally decide to quit on his sorry ass. Just then, i feel a mass of something bang into me and watch as...he falls onto the floor.  
"Oi, watch where your walking, brat." I say scowling at the figure starting to stand up. "Oh I-I'm sorry" he says innocently dusting the non existing dirt off his clothes. I lift up one eye brow at the young boy in front of me. It has to be at least five degrees out here and he was walking around in a t-shirt and jeans. I notice that his nose and cheeks are pink from the cold. He hugs his arms, nods and starts walking away.  
"Wait, brat."  
He turns around, surprised.  
I roll my eyes at him as I start to unwrap the scarf that was currently around my neck letting in a gust of cold air. This brat better be thankful, I'm as cold af right now.  
I hand him my scarf and he accepts it with a large, flashy smile. "Does this mean were friends?" He was nearly bouncing up and down. I look up at him (yes, up) with a look saying are you kidding?  
"Who said anything about us being friends?"  
"Oh, well, you gave me your clothes. Friends do that don't they?"  
" I gave you my scarf, not my clothes. And I wouldn't know, I don't exactly have friends." I said the last part under my breath. Me, myself barely hearing it. How the kid in front of me heard, I'll never know.  
His smile increased "well I don't have any friend either, so maybe it can be a first time thing for the both of us." he walks over to me and links his arm in mine.  
"Can you be my owner?"  
I look at him compleatly dumbfounded.  
"Your what?" Is that some weird kink going around now a days?  
"My owner!" He says rolling his eyes as if I wasn't the one making any sense.  
"Owner?" I repeat.  
"Yes! I'll tell you a secret."  
I hadn't realised it but we were now walking arm in arm to my work place. When had we started walking?  
"I can trust you with a secret because were friends." He says.  
"You know,"I start, "I never agreed with being your friend."  
The mystery boy continues talking as if I hadn't said anything.  
" I need an owner because....I'm a neko!"  
I stop walking now. A neko? Aren't Thoes things fake. A figment of imagination, only existing in stories, or anime?  
I shake my head dismissively.  
"Listen brat, I don't know what game your playing at but Nekos are as real as unicorns or...or happy endings." I unlink my arm from his and start speeding up.  
"No? Then how do you explain this?"  
They young man runs up in front of me and squeezes his eyes shut. I look at him in disgust afraid of what he might do. Just then a pair of furry ears pop up on the top of his head, and a long black tail appears from his behind.  
"See!"  
I squint my eyes at him and continue Walking. nope. goodbye. walking away from your lies. I sigh when I see him walk to catch up with me. I guess it can't be helped.  
"Whats your name anyway brat?"  
He stares at me puzzled for a minute.  
"I...don't have one."  
Unbelievable...how did he get this far in life without a name?  
I noticed that his ears and tail were now gone.  
"Well, since your my owner.... Can you give me one?"  
I stay silent for a while until we reach the next cross walk.  
"Eren."  
"Huh?" The 'neko' responds. "Your name is now Eren."  
I decided on this name because it was simple, but interesting.  
I turn to look at the young man,Eren.  
He seemed to be lost in thought before a large smile worked its way onto his lips. "Great! Thank you..."  
I sigh. "Levi. My name's Levi."  
His smile grew even wider before he hugged me. "Thank you...Levi"


	2. Chapter 2

As eren and I walk into the building that was sadly my work place, I tell Eren to wait in the lobby. If Eren really does think I'm his owner and he dose end up living with me, how am I going to take care of him? I barely have enough time To take care of myself. Well maybe it will be like taking care of a cat. All I need to do is buy a litter box and food. Do nekos use litter boxes? I shake my head dismissively as I walk into my boss's office.  
"What do you want eyebrows. I'm supposed to have this day off so you better make it quick."  
Instead of being confronted with my big-eyebrowed-boss, I was approached by his assistant, Hanji.  
"What are you doing here glasses? Better yet, what am I doing here? If Erwin doesn't really need me I'm going home." I started to leave when she nearly jumped over the desk she was sitting behind "WAIT!"  
I turn around with a 'tch' of my tongue. "Erwin is out today so I'm covering for him and I DO need you". She sits back down in the large chair we was stationed infront Of. " I need a little help pronouncing some of these words." She says trailing off while pointing at a stack of papers on the desk in front of her. I grap the bridge of my nose with my thumb and finger. "Hanji, you out off all people should understand how busy I am."  
"Levi?" My eyes widen as eren walks into the office.  
"Oh, here you are!"  
"Eren? I thought I told you to wait in the lobby brat."  
"I started getting lonely and missed you." He says pouting  
I roll my eyes scowling at him.  
He slowly walks further into the office to me and bends down wrapping himself around one of my legs like a child.  
I squeeze my eyes shut, my hand finding the Bridge of my nose again. "This can't be happening" I whisper to myself.  
"Oh, your right!" Hanji yells from the office desk "Your free to leave, see you tomorrow." I scowl at her. I wonder exactly how bad this situation looks to her.... I take a step toward the door with my free leg then drag the occupied one behind me continuing this process until I reach the door. Before I leave, I decide to ask an important question. If it had gone unanswered it probably would mean the death of me.  
"Hey, glasses?"  
"Hm?" she looks up with a psychotic grin  
"Do you know anything about cats?"


	3. Chapter 3

I walk into my apartment room nearly falling onto the nearest couch.  
  
I lay down with a groan.  
  
"Sooo...levi,"  
  
"What is it brat?"  
  
"Nothing....actually I was wondering if I could help you with your work? You seemed really stressed...."  
  
I glare at eren as he says this. Noticing my evil glance erens sentence trailed off staying unfinished.  
  
I sit up now. "If your up for it you can try." I stand up and slowly walk to my desk overflowing with papers. I take what seems like half of them and slide them to one side of the table. "Alright you can start with these. I just need you to read them, find the mistakes, fix the mistakes and then leave the rest to me. I'm hoping you can at least do that much?"  
  
Eren smiles as his task and gets right to work. Wow, I didn't think I would actually get anything out of having a pet. I smirk to myself and get to work filing the papers and editing certain ones.  
  
About an hour in, eren hands in all his papers telling me he's done.  
  
"Is there anything else you need help with levi?"  
  
I stare at the papers in shock, but not letting it show on my face. I sit there for a minute trying to think up a task.  
  
"Do you know how to clean?"  
  
"I think so"  
  
"Hm. Well under the sink in the kitchen there's cleaning supplies. Clean."  
  
"Alright!"  
  
He runs out of my room to do what I had told him. Stupid kid. I shake my head as I continue my work.  
When I reached my last stack of papers I lean my head on my hand and start to drift off. I can't sleep. I need to....fin...ish. I...need..too....

+++++++++++++++++++++++

I shift slightly, still not fully awake, in my bed. In...my bed? I don't remember falling asleep in bed. Wasn't I sitting at my desk? Eyes still closed I shift slightly not able to move at all. My eyes shoot open to the sight of a sleeping Eren. The only thing is, he was sleeping on top of me. His arms were wrapped around my shoulders and his head rested on my chest. I was Completly disgusted with the situation I was in. I was about to push Eren off of me when I saw what time It was. 8:33am. I was supposed to be at work an hour ago. I've never been late, mabey the clock was just fast today? I then remembered that Erwin sends his secretary to check on people who are this late. Oh no that means glasses...  
  
As if on que I hear Hanji crash through the front door of of my apartment.  
  
"LEVI!!!"  
  
This isn't happening. I sit up in bed eren still hanging onto me. I try prying his arms off me with both my hands and one of my feet kicking at his torso. I wasn't fast enough. Hanji crashes through my bedroom door. "LEV- AAAH!! SORRY!!"  
She slams the door back shut. I hear her annoying, shrill laughter from the other side of the door. I jump out of bed, eren now off of me. I swing my door open. "Listen glasses it's not what you- what are your going?"  
  
"Awww!! I didn't get my phone out in time. I wanted to get pictures!!"  
  
I watch as she slides her now out phone back into the purse slung over her shoulder.  
  
"I know erwin sent you because I'm late, just give me three minutes to get ready and-"  
  
"First tell me about him! Isn't that the same guy who came looking for you in the office?!"  
  
She says pointing at the neko now lying on the floor. "He's um.."  
  
How do I explain what he is without sounding like a pervert or some crazy person.  
  
"Your...lover?"  
  
"No! He's my pet." The words come out in a rush, but I mentally face palmed my self when they escaped my lips. That definitely came out pervy.  
  
  
"Will you be quiet!! Your voice is going to be the death of me."  
  
Hanji bites her lower lip. "My baby levi is growing up! I never thought I'd see the day when you found someone you loved!"  
  
"Get this through that thick skull of yours. He's not my lover he's my...cousin."  
  
"Your cousin...?"  
  
Wait, that also came out weird "cousin...cousin's brother..."  
  
"Ooh ok. and what's his name?" She asks wiggling her eyebrows at me.  
  
"Eren."  
  
"Eren ...."  
  
It never occurred to me to think up a last name.  
  
"J..ea.."  
  
"C'mon spit it out!!"  
  
"Jaeger"  
  
"Oh. Eren jaeger that's perfect!"  
  
"For what?" I say lifting up an eye brow at her.  
  
"Oh nothing! Erwin is still out, so if you could just mail in your papers...you can have today off!"  
  
"But I'm pretty sure I needed to go in today."  
  
"Oh trust me I think it will do you...and eren... Some good if you got some time off. Anyway! Have fun!"  
  
And with that she left as fast as she had come in.  
I look around making sure she hadn't knocked anything down on her way out and was shocked to see the apartment spotless. I don't remember cleaning up. I thought for a minute. Eren. He's more useful than he let's on. I decided I was going to make it up to this brat. starting right now


	4. Chapter 4

As a thank you, I decide to cook one of my favorite desserts for eren. This brat better be happy because I don't do this for just anyone. By the time I finished it was nine Thiry and eren still was asleep. I was surprised he was able to sleep through all the noise I was making. No matter, I was going to wake him up anyway. I got an empty spray bottle and filled it with Ice water.  
"Oi, wake up brat!" I start squirting his face with the freezing water.  
His eyes shoot open and he jumps up running away.  
"Cold! Cold! Cold!" He runs into the living room and freezes mid-run, his nose twitching. "Whats that smell"  
" I decided to cook some creme puffs as a thankyou for cleaning the apartment and helping me with work."  
"Really?" Eren's eyes light up his tail and ears appearing. He jumps over onto one of the dining room table chairs licking his lips. "Ive never had one of Those before." I grab a plate and place two creme puffs on theme and present them to eren. He grabs one and stuffs the whole thing into his mouth. After a couple of bites he sits there with his mouth hanging open. "Close your mouth  
when you eat."I say disgusted.  
"Can I have another creamy ball?" He whispers, ignoring what I had just said, in eating with his mouth closed.  
"Help yourself" what I had meant by that was for him to grap a couple more but when I turned back around all two dozen creme puffs were gone except one. "Eren where did the creme puffs go?" I look at his face. His eyes were lightly closed and his tip of his tongue was slightly sticking out of his smiling mouth. "Mm those creamy balls were delicious." He mumbles to himself. "Are there anymore?!" I glare at him then at the last creme puff. His gaze also snaps from me to the puff then back to me. Our hands both fly toward it, but mine was faster. I plop the puff into my mouth enjoying the warm sweetness that I had just baked. "If you want I can make more." Eren's eyes light up. "Yes!"  
"Alright let's go to the store. Your going to have to put your tail and ears away though"  
"Alrighty let's go!"

++++++++++++++++++++++

Instead of going to the local grocery store I think better of it and decide to drive us to the mall. The only thing good about my job is that it pays well. We jump into my all black Porsche and drive for about twenty minutes to the nearest mall.  
"Wow! It's so biiig!"  
"Why are you acting like you've never seen a mall before?"  
"Mall? So that's what it's called?"  
I look at eren dumbfounded. 

"Anyway if you see any clothes you like here just grab them. You can meet me back in the grocery store. I'm going to be getting the ingredients for more creme puffs."  
"Ok."  
I glance over at eren from the corner of my eyes and see that he actually looks nervous. I sigh. "Or would you like me to come with you?"  
"Yes please!"  
I inwardly cringe at the thought of shopping with another man and how that would look, but I dismiss the thought. 

We walk into into mall going through almost every clothing store-including victoria's secret-they had to offer. Tired of being dragged around I started waiting outside of the stores and waiting for eren to buy what he wanted. I didn't really care what he decided to buy until he held one thing up to me.  
"Look what I got!"  
"Why did you buy that?"  
"Well it says that you use it for dogs and cats so I thought that it would be ok to buy for me." He says quietly.  
I grab the red leash and collar from his hand. And stare at it with one eye brow raised.

"Do you really want me to put this on you?"

His eyes light up as he nods his head up and down.  
"Fine I'll be willing to do it just this once." For a friend, I wanted to add. But I don't think I was ready to admit that. 

I tell eren to bend down slightly so I can put the collar on. 

After it's securely on I attach the leash to the collar and start walking. I'm pretty sure we got plenty of unpleasant, and confused looks but I didn't care. To be honest I was having a bit of fun. I smirk as we make our way down to the grocery store part of the mall. "Here, hold these. I'll be right back." I hand eren some of the shopping bags containing his clothing and release the leash.  
I go and find butter, milk, dough, and eggs. After finding said items I head back to where I had left eren. 

"Oi eren I jus-"

I stop mid sentence when I see that there is in fact no eren standing where Id left him. I click my tongue and hurriedly walk around hissing his name. I finally found him in the pet isle. He had dropped all the bags and was pawing at one of the furry toys attached to a string. There was a loud purring erupting from the back of his throat. As I got closer I noticed that his pupils had grown like those of a cat when it's playing. 

"Oi! Brat!" 

He turns and look at me his eyes going back to Normal. 

"Oh hey levi are you ready to go?"

He stands up from the squat he was previously in and collects the fallen bags. "Yes. let's go."

We start heading to the check out line. And I swear from the corner of my eye I saw eren run back to that fuzzy toy and sneak it into the shopping cart


	5. Chapter 5

I walk over to my coat hanger and grab my long black coat that complemented my dark hair and grey eyes rather nicely. "Oi, Eren!"  
He looks at me, his eyes wide in question.

"Today im going into work"

I look at the non existing watch around my wrist "I'll be back whenever"   
"Okay, Have fun!"  
I grunt at his reply. With my job and my sucky boss I couldn't possible have 'fun.' I walk out of the large apartment as I lift up the collar of my coat and hunch my shoulders to keep my ears and neck warm. I start walking after I put my hands into my pockets and start walking to my car. Usually I walk to work but I did not feel like getting frost bite so I decided against it. The entire drive there my thoughts wondered else where. Directed mainly toward Eren. His eyes were so captivating and the color, green and blue like the ocean but more...stunning. He wondered how he had opened up to eren so quickly. Even though he didn't show much emotion around him and express himself like others, he still got along better with him than anyone else he had known.

Maybe this is what having a true friend is like....or Maybe it's something more. My thoughts were cut short upon reaching my destination.   
I sigh as I get out of my heated car. A puff of steam escaping my mouth from the cold as I did so. I barge into my office and place the messenger bag I was holding, on my desks chair. Iean against the wall while I wait for a call from Hanji giving me the 'okay' to see erwin.   
I stand up straight and walk to the door. Screw okay's, I can go as I please. I say to myself as I enter the elevator to my big eyebrowed boss. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*erens p.o.v*

I sit with my legs crossed on the comfortable couch in front of the large TV. I scroll through the show options on Netflix and decide on the show I was watching the previous night. I had actually became quite fond of the show called 'sword arts online.' 

After about ten minutes into the episode, I deside I'm hungry so I walk into the kitchen and open the cabinet in search of somthing to snack on.

I scan the shelf and am surprised to see A LOT of coffee. I scoot some out of the way.  
"Ah ha! Jackpot"I reach in and grab the party size bag of Hot Cheetos.

I didn't see levi being the type of person that likes spicy food, But apparently he did... I shrug and walk back to the couch un-pausing the show, and opening the chips. I shove a large handful of the bright red chips into my mouth, quickly regretting it.  
I was about to spit them out when I thought better of it, remembering the mess I would have to clean up afterward.  
I chew faster as my eyes start to water, coughing and nearly choking in the process.   
I finally get them down as I run to get my self a cup of water. "Water. Water. I need- water!"   
I found a single water bottle in the fridges side compartment.

I chug down the satisfying liquid. 

My eyes widen and I spit the water out. 

It sprays all over the counter with a red color from the amount of Cheetos that were previously in my mouth. "That made it even worse!" I choke out as I look for a different drink, coughing like I might spit a hair ball any second.

I find a tall black can labeled 'monster.' 

What's monster? I didn't have time to think it through as I grab the black drink and swallow down the whole can in a matter of seconds. 

I sigh in relief as I sit back down on the couch careful to eat one cheeto at a time.

When I finally make it to the second season of the show I hadn't realised I had finished off all the Cheetos.  
I crumple up the bag, hoping levi wasn't planning on eating those anytime soon.

My ears and tail had appeared and were starting to twitch wildly. I take my hand out of my lap to touch one of my ears when I noticed my hand was also shaking.

What's happening? 

My heart started to race as i stood up and I had the urge to jump up and down and do summersaults throughout the apartment.   
Maybe I'll go for a run.  
I don't grab a coat on my way out, bolting as fast as I can in a random direction. My dark brown hair flys in all directions as i run faster than I ever have before.   
++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
I finally start to run out of breath and slow down to a walk. I do a 360 scanning the area around me, trying to figure out where exactly I am. That's when I realise...I'm lost. I shrug as I start to walk in a direction I think might be the way I just came from. As I walk I notice that it's starting to get dark so I start to quicken my pace. 

Out of the corner of my eye I see something move and my attention focuses in that direction. Oh, it was only a man. Maybe he can help me. "Excuse me sir, but do u know how to get back to Trost road?" He didn't respond as he walked across the street toward me. "Sir?"  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*Levi's pov*

I walk back to my apartment angrily but slightly relived that a huge weight was off my shoulders.

I wait at the crosswalk that lead to my apartment complex. 

Maybe quitting my job wasn't the best option? I dismiss the thought. Of course it was a good option I was being worked to my limits there, plus no more annoying glasses to bother me. Deep down I knew I would slightly miss here annoying laughter, and her presence all together even though it made me want to rip my hair out every time she was within a five mile radius of me. 

The light signals for pedestrians to walk, so I follow the order.   
When I take the elevator to the seventh floor of the apartment complex and walk to room 221, the door is wide open. I squint at the open door suspiciously. Walking in I can hear the TV on in the living room and figure eren probably forgot to close it.  
I walk further into the room.  
"Oi brat! Learn to close th-"

I stop in my tracks when I don't see him on the couch. My attention snaps over to the kitchen that has all the cabinets thrown open and red liquid sprayed on the counter. Is that... 

"Eren?" I shout. When there was no response I knew that he wasn't here. 

"Tch" I clench my fists as I walk out of my apartment. "Someone better not have taken my brat."


	6. Chapter 6

We sat on the couch, stuffed from the amount of creme puffs devoured. I had baked up twice as many as I had before and had split them evenly between us, but that was still too many. 

Eren stretches next to me and I decide to take this moment to reach for the remote. I turn on the TV and head onto Netflix. 

After about fifteen minutes on deciding what to watch, we finally settled on watching sherlock. Not realising that each episode was as long a freaking King Kong, we got through all three seasons by 11:00pm. 

"Its over?!?"

I was just as shocked as eren when it ended. It had left us on the worst cliff hanger.

"unbelievable..." I trail off shaking my head slowly at the TV. 

Unlocking my iPhone I check when the next season is supposed to air. 

"2016....you've got to be sh--ing me right now."

"Mabey we can find another show to watch while we wait until then."

Eren suggested, his green-blue eyes looking up at me expectantly.  
"Sure go ahead, but I'm getting some shut eye." I slowly get up from my comfortable seat on the couch and head over to the bathroom to get ready for bed.   
+++++++++++++++++++++

I slip on a long sleeve shirt and pajama bottoms before crashing onto my bed. As I lay there with my eyes closed, but not asleep, I can faintly hear a new show now playing on the living room TV. 

 

I start nodding off into a deep sleep noticing that I could no longer hear the television playing. As my eyes got heavier and I started drifting to sleep I saw through my blurry vision (caused by sleep) my door creep open and a figure I identify as eren walk into my room. My eyes now compleatly shut I feel eren hop onto my bed and lay down next to me. 

 

As I woke up I expected a sleeping neko next to me. To my surprise there was no sign of him. I got up squinting my eyes more out of suspicion than pain from the light pouring in from my window. I get up and walk into the living room and stop when I smell a delicious aroma emanating from the kitchen.   
"Eren?" I question as I walk into the lit cooking area.  
He flinches nearly dropping whatever he was holding. 

 

"Oh your awake?" He looks down looking sad. I raise an eye brow at him. 

 

" I woke up early so I could make you breakfast."

"Nothings stopping you"

A smile grows on his face and his tail and ears appear, twitching happily. I noticed that when eren got excited his neko features tended to pop up.   
I walk over to the front door and grab my coat. 

 

"Oi, eren. I'm going to go check if I got any mail from work. Don't burn down the place while I'm gone."

"Dont count on it!" He says back giving me a fake salute.

 

As I walk out of the apartment complex I was hit with a huge gust of wind almost causing me to loose my balance. I look up at the sky inwardly cursing it when I noticed the thick cloud settling above. It's probably going to rain, I think to myself. Right on time the local mail truck parked infront of the building. I walk over to the truck. 

"Oh, ello levi" he says tipping his hat to me. 

I nod once in acknowledgment 

"Mike."

"As usual here is your weekly stack of papers." 

I sigh as I reach out and grab them. I start to turn around, walking back to the apartments. 

"Wait!"

"There's one more thing."

He reaches for a thin, light blue, package, obviously filled with paper, and hands it to me. I stare at it for a moment then turn back around and head back to my room. I walk in to the sight of eren sitting at the table with 2 plates already set up for breakfast. They both had two pancakes, eggs, and...what was that? I put down the mail on my desk and walk back over to the dining room table and get a better look of what was accompanying the eggs and pancakes. I'm shocked when I identify what it is.

 

"Where did you learn to make that?"

 

Even though I had never learned to make the dessert myself, I still remember eating those throughout my childhood. Crème Brûlée.

I sit down unblinking as I stare at the dessert in front of me. 

"I take it you like French desserts?" 

Eren asks with a look I can't quite identify. I nod slowly at his question.   
Blinking myself out of shock I start eating the other portions of the breakfast first, knowing that créme brûlée tasted better cold. Finally finishing the rest of my food I grab a spoon and take a small scoop of the sweet dessert savering the delectable taste that settled into my mouth. I look up at eren who is watching me intently.

"How is it?" 

Now, I'm not the type of person who shows much emotion, or appreciation so I gave my highest compliment. "Not bad" A slight smile creeping onto my lips. 

"Really?! I'm glad I didn't mess up, this was kinda my first time cooking"

I nearly choke on the food in my mouth. First time? That was very impressive. "Y-you know, Levi, I can teach you how to make them if you..." He looks down at the table as he trails off. 

I can tell he wasn't going to finish the rest of his sentence so I decide to answer saving him the trouble."If you want."

His eyes light up as he looks back up at me. But he doesn't say anything as he takes another bite of the sweet dessert in front of him.   
As I eat the rest of the brûlée I pick up my dishes to wash, when I was stopped by Eren. "Don't worry, I've got it." He grabs my dishes and starts cleaning them rather well. 

"Why are you being so nice to me?" 

Eren looks up at what he was doing and smiles. "Because your my friend. O-oh! And you've also been a big help by giving me a place to stay!" 

So this was friendship. I felt something inside of me change and my heart started to race.   
Why was my heart pounding so hard at such simple words. I was starting to like eren a little to much to my liking. 

To get my mind off of what happend I walk over to the papers that had come in the mail. My attention is directed to the blue package balanced on top. I reach for it when a hand flies and grabs it before me. I look up and see eren holding it. 

"Oh..this is for me."

His voice drops down to a whisper. 

"I'm surprised it came so fast."

He may have meant for that sentence to go unheard, but I heard it loud and clear. I glare at him. What was in that package? 

I shake my head dismissively and start working on the large stack of papers settled in front of me. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My head shoots up off of my folded arms. Dangit, I fell asleep again. I look at the watch hung up on the wall that reads nine fifteen pm. I hear a slight pounding noise from out side realising it was raining. As I stood up I noticed that all the lights in the apartment were turned off. Eren must have turned them off and gone to bed. 

I stand up to retire to the bed when a bright flash of lighting is followed by a loud crash of thunder. Of course there's a thunder storm. There goes my good night sleep. I roll my eyes as another crash is heard. I noticed a small whimper that followed the noise. 

There was also a muffled sniffing coming from the corner of the bed room. I walk over to the source. 

"Eren?"

It ghasps and stands up crashing into me.   
"L-levi I'm sc-" he was cut off by yet another crash of thunder and squeezed his arms around me harder. Oh so the brat was afraid of lightning? He let's go of me looking down at the floor. "Sorry I know that you don't like hugs it's just that I-" 

He shouts yet again as the storm continues and grabs onto my arm crying lightly on my shirt. "Its fine. If your scared, you can hug me." He looks up at me with a confused smile. 

"You don't have to be scared. here it will help to talk and try ignoring the sound." 

I didn't actually know if that would work but I had no other way of comforting him.

"How about you start on what you did today while I was asleep"

"Well, I first did the dishes the-"

He paused flinching violently when the thunder roared from outside

"t-then I started just cleaning the room, when I was almost done, the lighting started and all the lights shut off by themselves" 

Oh ok so eren hadn't turned the light off, it was a black out. At some point we had worked our way to the floor and were now sitting with our backs against the foot of the bed. Before I knew it eren had fallen asleep still attached to my arm. I sigh. 

"Brat." 

Even though I didnt like how we were sitting on the unsanitary floor or that eren had gotten tears all over my clothes, I couldn't help but feel sympathy toward the young neko. I slowly started to stroke his brow hair until my head slightly lolled forward and I drifted into a dreamless sleep


	7. Chapter 7

"Where is he?" I had already walked at least five miles around the city looking in every building, street, and alleyway.

Maybe he wasn't in the city.

I was now standing in some random street in the complete darkness, except for a lonely streetlight that was threatening to stop working any minute. The wind had started to pick up with the darkness, and I hadn't even grabbed a jacket. 

I wrap my arms around themselves and started to walk back to my apartment. He'll show up eventually. Right?   
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*Eren's pov*

As the man got closer I started to notice exactly how tall this man was. I started to slowly walk in the opposite direction when I heard the steps behind me break into a run. 

Flinching at the realisation, I ran as fast as I could away from the perusing figure. Neko's were able to run faster than most animals, but for some reason he couldn't outrun this one human.

Maybe it was due to him already running himself out?

When I tried to push my self harder, one of my legs gave out and I face planted onto the cement below me. I barely had time to even try getting up when two hands had grabbed me by the shoulders. 

He had gotten me. 

I sigh in defeat and squeeze my eyes shut expecting the worse. In a matter of seconds the hands were ripped from my shoulders with a loud thud that followed. I slowly opened my eyes to the sight of Levi standing over my attacker who was now on the floor. 

The taller man, now holding a knife, stood up and shot toward Levi, but was easily dodged. This went on for another five minutes. 

The attacker throwing kicks and punches, trying to land his knife anywhere he could. While levi, arms crossed, dodged without attacking. After I'm guessing was the last kick from the mysterious man, he had hunched over trying to catch his breath. 

Levi walked over to him and looked at him with disdain. 

I flinched when a powerful kick was landed on the hunched mans stomach. The action was repeated until the man lay crumple in a ball coughing.   
"Levi thats enough!" I stand up and start walking up to him. My legs were still burning but I ignored the minor pain. "Levi." I wrap my arm through one of his and tug on it lightly.

"Please stop." 

He looks at me without blinking and I step back unlinking my arm. 

He turns back at the man on the floor and back down a road I'm guessing is the way back. He closes his eyes with a 'tch' of his tongue as he untied the cravat around his neck.

It was shredded and dirty from-what I guessed-this small fight. He held it out as if inspecting it then let it fall to the floor. "Let's go." He says turning to leave. His voice was cold and filled with no emotion.

I sigh, silently following behind him.  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*Levi's pov*

When Eren closed the door behind him I couldn't hold back my anger and fear any longer.

"What were you doing out there!" 

"I-I was going for a ru-"

"A run?! Eren you could have gotten killed! that man had a knife!"

"I could have taken care of my self, levi!" He yelled back, crossing his arms and turning away from me. 

"It sure didn't look like it when I came!" I sigh not wanting this to continue. 

"Listen, I refuse to fight with you. You should get some sleep."  
I say walking over to my cleaning products. 

Cleaning always seemed to calm me down when I was angry or stressed. 

I watch Eren walk into the bedroom without another word.

I stand in the middle of the kitchen area scanning the mess that had formed. Red mystery juice all over the counter, contents from the fridge strewn across the floor. 

What was that brat doing? 

As I clean up what ever was on the counter, re-organise the fridge, sweep, then polish the floor, and do a bit of dusting, I decide Im satisfied with the end result of my cleaning and finally calm down. 

After I wash my hands, I walk into my bedroom and see eren sitting on my beg cross legged, with my lap top sitting on his lap. His ears and tail were out and he was pressing keys and scrolling on the mouse pad, obviously concentrating. 

When I walk further into the room he looks up and put the screen down so I couldn't see what he was doing. 

"What are you doing on my lap top?"

"Oh, I-I'm d-doing re-search! Y-yeah, research." He says laughing nervously. 

I lift an eye brow at him suspiciously. 

I didn't want to think wrong but I was starting to the more I thought longer on the subject... 

I try thinking up an excuse to leave that wouldn't be any more awkward and that's when I remembered we didn't have dinner.

"Oi, Eren I'm making dinner."

I walk back into the kitchen and start preparing a meal.   
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
After making, and eating, dinner which happend to be homemade chicken Alfredo soup put inside a bread bowl, we were dead set in going to bed.

I was surprised to see it was already 12:00pm when I looked at the bed side table clock. 

The warm soup had helped me sleep through the night, but I wasn't sure about Eren though. 

Before I fell asleep I saw Eren sit up and turn on the lap top again. He had look at me, then at the screen, and smiled. I would have asked what he was doing, but I could barely keep my eyes open. I tried to get a glance at the screen, but a smiling neko was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

I take a bite out of the toast I'm holding and glance over toward Eren. "So what were you doing on my computer last night?" I say in a teasing voice. 

He quickly glances up at me the back down at the table he was sitting at. "N-nothing really." He stands up quickly putting both hands on the edge of the table leaning in my direction.  
"You didn't see right?!" 

I squint my eyes suspiciously at him.

What exactly was he hiding? First that blue package and now this. 

His eyes widen as he gasps loudly. "I almost forgot! What time is it?"

I look at him completely dumbfounded now. "Eight thirty-ish. Why?" 

"Dangit! Ive got to go!" I watch as he runs into the bedroom grabbing a messenger bag, obviously filled, and hurriedly puts on a pair of shoes. 

"Where do you think your going?"  
He doesn't answer me as he runs over to his plate, stuffs his mouth with the rest of his toast, and runs over to the front door. 

"Bye, Levi! I'll be back later" and with that he left without giving me any further information on where exactly he was headed too. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*Eren's pov* 

I walk into Starbucks and find the bathroom taking my messenger bag off my shoulder. 

I pull out the pair of black jeans, the black T-shirt with the logo embedded on the side, and the green apron made to go over it. After I put on the shops uniform, I walk back out. I had been working here for about two days now. The only thing was I didn't want Levi to find out so I usually changed into my uniform here.

"Oh hey Eren, you made it!" I look up to see one of my co workers wave at me as I walk behind the counter. "Oh hey, Petra! It's not really a busy morning is it?" I question looking around the coffee shop only seeing a couple of people here and there-The usual creepy old guy in the corner booth on his laptop, and a few teenagers with thier headphones in. 

Petra was in charge of making the drinks, but was currently stationed at the register do to my absence. "Thanks for holding my place, but I've got it."  
She nods and walks back to her respective area as we wait for a customer. 

It wasn't long when a group of laughing teens walked in. This was a common thing. Groups of about four rowdy teens come into Starbucks giving us fake names and getting a good laugh out of it. "Hey, welcome to Starbucks," I say smiling at them, "What would you guys like today?"

"We would like one tall vanilla bean, two Caramel fraps, and one black coffee." 

"Okay and is that all?" They nod. "All under the same name or separate?"

"Separate."  
Here it comes.... I reach for the black sharpie next to the register. They named off four ridiculous names (for example: voldemort, Spartacus, sofa king.) and I couldn't help but laugh. 

Maybe this job would turn out to be more fun than it let on. 

The morning had been getting busier and busier throughout the day. Some customers had a way of making the employee's day. Few were hilarious, and some creepy but what would be a job where you didn't experience something out of the ordinary. 

As it started nearing lunch the amount of customers coming in had died down, so I decided to do a bit of cleaning until the next person walked in. After about ten minutes my watched beeped signalling my lunch break.

"Alright break time! Hey Petra?" She looks up from what she was doing.

"yes?"

"After my break can I try a little bit of barista-ing" I inwardly cringe at my trying to make that a word. "Sure! I can show you the basics if you'd like." 

I nod and rush off to the nearest table eating the lunch I had packed. It was nothing too special just a turkey sandwich, and a couple creme puffs I had snuck in there. 

"Okay I'm done!" I rush back to behind the counter to where Petra was, as she giggles showing me how to prepare some of the different frappuccinos and coffee blends.

"Okay, I think I get it! Say, can I try doing the next order that comes in"

"You're still new, but If you think your ready then of course! If you need help don't hesitate to ask."  
Just then we here the bell above the door ring signalling a customer. I walk over to the equipment and get it ready as I listen to Petra taking his order, my back to them both.  
"And is that all for today?"

"Hm."

"Okay and your name?"

"Levi."

I flinch when I hear the name. I turn slightly with my back still to him to see if him. Sure enough it was my levi. 

Why is he here? I can't let him know that I work here. I could easily see my entire plan falling apart because of him seeing me.

Petra walks over to me and hands me the cup with his name written on the side. "Grade coffee, black." She says giving me an encouraging nod. I take the cup and make the black coffee.  
I turn to see if Levi is still standing there, but he has found one of the plush chairs and was now settled there, not paying any attention in this direction. Good, so he didn't know I was here. 

As I finish making his coffee, I decided to sneak in a couple shots of vanilla creamer, noticing he liked when I did that to his coffee back at home. I put the lid onto the drink realising I was going to have to shout out his name.... I squeeze my eyes as I take a breath, readying to call him out. Here goes nothing...

"Levi! Your grande coffee, black is ready!" I turn away quickly and duck down, but not before seeing Levi's head snap up with a look of what looked like confusion and surprise. 

"Eren what are you doing?" I flinch where I was crouched, but I soon recognise the voice of Petra and not Levi's. I place a finger to my lip telling her to shush. 

"Do you know that man? Is that why your hiding?" She looks back over in the direction I saw Levi last. 

"Don't worry he's leaving now." I stand up and look over the edge of the counter and sure enough he was leaving. I continue to watch as he reaches for the door while simultaneously taking a sip of his coffee. He stops mid stride and stares at his cup. I couldn't help but smile, he's probably wondering why it tastes so familiar. 

He continues walking until he's no longer in view from behind the counter. 

I stand up completely now and dust the non existing dirt off myself. "To answer your question, yes I do know him."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, he's my..r-roommate?" It had come out more as a question then a statement.

"Oh so are you guys college students?"

"U-Um..." I didn't know how to answer her question. What the heck was a college? 

All she did was giggle then go back to work.  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*Levi's pov* 

I go and sit at my dest, coffee still in hand. I needed a couple minutes to understand what had just happend.

Ok, so first: after I ordered my coffee the person who called out that it was ready sounded just like Eren. At first I thought it was just my imagination but then, when I took a sip of my coffee it had tasted exactly how it did when Eren makes it, with a slight vanilla flavouring. Where was that brat anyway? 

I drink the rest of my coffee and throw away the paper cup. I change into a sleeveless shirt and workout shorts. Wherever Eren is, I'll find out, right I'm done working out


	9. Chapter 9

As I get out of the shower, still worn out from my exercise, I don't bother getting dressed, because I'm not planning on going anywhere. So, I settle on wearing only a pair of boxers. I look up at the clock and see that it's now 6:30pm and Eren still isn't back.

I'm probably just overthinking it. 

To get my mind off things, I start preparing dinner. I'm not even half way done when I here the click of the door unlocking. I had given Eren my spare room key not too long ago, so I was more than sure it was him walking in. 

I don't look over to the door until I here a voice accompanying Eren's. It was a strawberry blond girl who's height would probably reach to my shoulders giggling at something that Eren had said. 

I stare at them giving them my signature death glare not daring to blink. What ever she was saying previously had died in her mouth when she saw what I was-or wasn't-wearing. I glance down at my gray boxers then back up at the two still standing in the doorway and I smirk. 

Talk about great first impressions. 

Say, wasn't that the girl who took my order at Starbucks? I squint my eyes at her then momentarily turn off the stove and walk into my room to put on a shirt and pants.  
When I come back out in a long sleeve shirt and a pair of pajama pants, I see Eren waving the girl goodbye. "Who was that?"  
"Oh, Petra? She's a friend from-" 

"from?" I raise an eye brow at him causing his attention to drop to the floor. "She's just a friend, but she offered to walk me home since she passes here on her way home." 

"One more thing, Eren. Why were you both wearing all black?" His eyes widen and his hands fly to cover left side of his chest. 

"No reason! I-I'll change!" I roll my eyes and walk back into the kitchen turning the stove back on and finishing the meal I had begun preparing. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In the middle of dinner, Eren had randomly broke out into a fit of giggling. "What is it now?" I ask looking up at Eren with a look of confusion. "Sorry. I just started remembering the look on Petra's face when she saw you." He says in between laughs.

I lift an eye brow at the laughing man in front of me.  
I chuckle and shake my head taking another bite of my food. "And what was this face she made?" Eren looks up at the ceiling as if lost in thought. Then looks at me, as his face reconstructing into an impersonation of said Petra.  
He lifted up one of his eye brows and widened his eyes. The left corner of his top lip lifted as if out of disgust. "I think this was the face." Eren says looking at me completely, the impersonation still on his face. I couldn't help but smile, so I covered it up with my glass of water, the cup hiding the faint smile that continued to grow. 

"Is that a smile I see?!" I place my cup down and take the smile off my face, My expression now blank. 

"What are you talking about brat?" 

He looks at me with a determined look in his eyes. "One day, I will make you smile, and you're not going to be able to cover it." I roll my eyes at that. "Good luck." I scoff standing up to do the dishes. 

•*•*•*•

"I'm going to bed." I declared walking into my room. "Okay I'll be there in a minute!" I heard Eren yell back.

Even though I had a guest bed room I didn't have the heart to tell Eren to start sleeping in there. And to be honest I didn't really mind him sleeping with me. It was like a new found warmth was always making my nights more comforting and warm, whenever he was with me. Or maybe it was just the fact that he somehow, in the middle of the night, ends up rolling on top of me and I'm too tired to push him off. 

Sure enough not even thirty seconds after getting into bed, Eren jumped in as well. "Goodnight levi" he whispered next to me. All I did was chuckle lightly as I drifted off to sleep. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++

"You're up early" I state making myself a cup of coffee. "Yup I've got to go, see you later!" Eren says walking out the door in a hurry. He was wearing all black again but had thrown a dark red hoodie on over the shirt he had been so eager to change out of the other day. 

After a couple of minutes I grab my coat and decide I will follow Eren to wherever he's been going to the past few days. I grab my car keys and head out into the parking lot. That's when i realise my car isn't here.... 

"Where's my-" I grab the bridge of my nose and sigh as I remember. 

It's still in the parking lot of Survey corps editing and photography. Out off all days, why this one. I sigh as I start to walk to my 'old' work place. 

I had recently started looking for other job opportunities and actually had an interview for one in a couple of weeks. 

 

I stand waiting at the crosswalk when I realise I hadn't seen which direction Eren had gone off in. I roll my eyes as the light signals for me to walk and I finally make it to where my black Porsche is parked. I pull out my keys and unlock the doors by pressing the unlock button on my keys. I hop into the drivers seat and turn on the heat. 

Why couldn't we have at least one warm day?

I wait a couple minutes to warm up before driving.  
As I arrived back to my apartment, parking in my usual spot, I decided on giving up on my search for Eren, not having the slightest clue of where to even begin looking for the brat. I walk back into the apartment complex and take the elevator to my respective floor and freeze when I open the door. "What are you doing?" I ask squinting my eyes at the frozen figure in front of me. Still wearing the all black outfit he had left in this morning, only his red hoodie was gone. "O-oh, hey Levi! I just forgot something..." His right hand flies up and covers the left side of his chest as if saluting. 

I ignore the small movement. His eyes then flick down to whatever was flung across his left arm and he quickly put it behind his back. I noticed it was some type of clothing with a dark green coloring to it. I lean to the side, angling my self to get a look at what was hidden behind his back. Before I could take a look Eren pushes past me, tripping on the way out the door. 

I grab the arm that was covering the left side of his chest to prevent him from hitting the floor. I had always had 'unnaturally' good reflexes. I pull Eren up into my arms my face centimetres from his, the only distance separating us was our hight difference. 

Eren's eyes widen slightly and gets his now-available hand and covers the left side of his shirt again. I drop my voice down to a husky, low whisper. "Aren't you going to say thank you?"  
I smirk as I lift up my right hand, slowly peeling his hand away from the corner of his shirt, although I couldn't care less what he was hiding under there. He looked at my approaching hand nervously which seemed to distract him; bingo. 

With my left hand I quickly-and successfully-grabbed at the green article of clothing hidden behind his back. "Aha!" I run down the hall to get away from the neko chasing after me, lifting it up as if it were a trophy. 

When Eren catches up, he tries reaching for whatever I had taken from him, but his careless flailing and reaching was easily dodged. I lift an eye brow at the....apron? "Whats this?" I mumble to myself. "Nothing!" Eren had managed to snatch it out of my hands. "I have to go!" And with that he ran down the hall and out of sight. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++  
Eren's pov 

That was way too close. I think to myself as I walk into the warm and familiar coffee shop known as Starbucks. Upon arriving, I walk in and throw on the green apron that was required as apart of the employee's uniforms. 

As I walk behind the counter, instead of being greeted with a warm "Goodmorning eren!" I'm greeted  
with an 

"Ugh, you?" I look up scowling.

Jean. What was he doing here? "Morning horse face, it's great to see my favorite co-worker here today." I say sarcastically rolling my eyes. "I didn't choose to be here, I'm only filling in until-" He was cut off by the bell above the door ringing, signalling a customer. 

"Oh hi boys! Your free to go now Jean!" Petra! This was great! So I wasn't going to have to spend the day working with my least favorite human. 

Petra walked behind the counter still tying the back of her green apron together, completing her uniform. "I hope you two got along while I was gone." Petra says without looking at me as Jean walks out of the shop causing the small bell to ring yet again.

"Actually I just got here my self, but it's a relief that you came when you did." She chuckles lightly and looks up at me doing a double take. I look at her tilting my head slightly.

"Is something wrong?" Just then I feel something soft brush against my elbo and turn to look what it is. I see a long black...snake! I let out a squeal and start spinning trying to locate where it is so I could run away but it seemed to be following me. 

It's then that I realised it wasn't a snake, it was just my tail. "Oh what a relief I thought there was a snake." I scoff rolling my eyes finding my mini freakout mildly embarrassing. I grab my tail and wave it like a flag at Petra. "But luckily it's just my tail." 

My smile disappears when I realise that most people don't know about neko's and that me being one was supposed to be something I couldn't share. I reach up my free hand and feel my head, and sure enough there were a pair of ears resting there. "Wait let me expla-"

She slowly shakes her head. "Wow eren.." 

I look down at the ground expecting the worst. "I didn't know you cosplayed!"

I looked up at her, this was my chance to fix my mistake. "Of course! I-I just forgot to change out of it on the way here... I can put them away if-" 

"No! You should keep them on. It's cute." she laughs lightly covering her mouth in doing so. "You know comic con is coming up soon?" When I looked at her with confusion she continued. "It's for cosplayers to show off their costumes, and I happen to have three tickets. If you and...a friend want to tag along with me, your free to come!"

"Really?! You wouldn't mind if I brought someone along? Your so sweet Petra, thankyou!" I wrap my arms around her giving her a tight hug. "I'll give you the tickets after work, the only thing is it's this Sunday. I know it's short notice but" 

"It's perfect, Thankyou!" 

I couldn't wait to tell Levi when I got back! I hear the bell above the door ring signalling our first customer. I release Petra from the bear hug she was trapped in. "Good Morning! Welcome to Starbucks."


	10. Chapter 10

"Welcome back." I say half heartedly when I hear Eren walk through the front door. "Mind telling me where you've been? Your strange behaviour has made me curious." 

I say standing up off the living room couch I was on and walking over to him. "Never mind that! I just got invited to this...cosplay convention was it? Yeah, and I'm bringing you with me." 

Eren says this with a determined look on his face like he already decided I was coming. "And when is this?"  
"This Sunday."   
" _Why so soon_ " I let this information settle in. That's in three days. 

I might as well just agree to go. A cosplay convention, did he mean otaku con or something? I haven't been to one of those sense... I wave my hand to snap my self out of drifting into the past. 

"Whatever I'll go to your convention. Who invited you anyway?" I lift an eyebrow at the boy in front of me in question. 

"Remember that girl that saw you in your boxers?"

I roll my eyes. 

"How could I forget that?"  
Eren, looking like he was struggling to keep in a laugh, turned his head to hide his growing smile. "Well, yeah, she's the one who invited us." 

I roll my eyes and scoff. "Great."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

*sunday morning*

"Get up! Get up!" Eren shouts bouncing on the bed. "We have to meet Petra at Starbucks at 6:30!" I groan as I sit up from my comfortable slumber and look at the clock seated on the bedside table. 

4:15am.

"Fine. I'm up." I stand up and Eren follows me off the bed.

"I just realised we have nothing to wear to this." Eren says, horror growing on his expression. 

I walk over and tussle his hair. He has no idea.   
I smirk at the thought. 

"Follow me." I walk out of my bed room and into the guest room. "You have another bed room?!"

"Yeah it's a guest room... Did you not know this whole time?" He looks down at his feet embarrassed, a faint blush dusting his cheeks.

I walk over to the guest room bed and pull out a small shoe box from underneath it. 

When I open the lid, I remove the small golden key that I hadn't seen since my high school days. I walk over to the guest room closet and insert the key that fits perfectly into the key hole. The door slides open smoothly as if it hadn't been closed for years.

"A walk in closet?!" Eren beams peaking inside the large closet. At this rate I'd be surprised if the kid didn't get a fly or two caught in that mouth of his. 

I roll my eyes and smirk. "Go ahead and pick one out for me as well while your in there." 

I tell Eren as I flip on the light switch for the closet, momentarily taking in the sight as well. 

Each hanger hanging up in the spacious closet was filled with cosplay costumes all organised by which anime show they belonged to. 

"Im going to take a shower."

++++++++++++++++++++++++

I walk back into the guest bed room in just a pair of sweat pants, my towel still draped around my neck. 

"You have a lot of costumes Levi... Even though I couldn't name half of the shows some of these belonged to, I still recognised a lot."

"Like which ones?" I respond walking over to Eren who had started to lay out our costumes. "Sword Arts Online, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Blue Exorcist, Soul Eater, Free!, and Tokyo ghoul." 

"Wow you know quite a bit for a brat like your self." I stand looking over at the guest room's bed which now had the two costumes laid on top of them. 

"Hm. Sebastian and Ceil?" I nod once and grab the cosplay for Sebastian. 

"Actually I'm going to cosplay as Sebastian, he _is_ taller than Ceil after all...." I roll my eyes, clicking my tongue. 

"Tch. Fine!" I reach for the old Victorian style blue, frilly outfit that ciel phantomhive would usually be seen wearing.   
"Wait...Actually you have to wear _this_ cosplay for Ciel." I turn around to see the outfit Eren was holding up. I scowl glaring at the outfit. "Hell no." 

 

Was the phrase I _wish_ the subject matter had ended at. But I gave in, and now I am standing in front of my mirror adjusting the frilly Victorian pink dress I now had on. 

The sleeves that slid down to below my shoulder on both sides, were made of a white, frilly, material that felt like silk. Near the top of the dress, on my chest, was a single pink rose matching the color of the rest of the outfit. On the bottom of the old fashoned dress was a white petticoat. On top of that layering was a pink Lolita style dress slightly pulled up by two black ribbons ending in bows. 

Eventough it was pulled up, it didn't show anything because of the petticoat layering underneath. To finish off the cosplay, I was a wearing two pig tail extensions that matched my hair color, and a large pink hat, the rim decorated with roses complimenting the coloring of the dress. The large hat was tilted slightly to the right covering that eye. 

I had even slipped on a pair of black elbow length gloves and a pair of knee high black boots. As I inspected myself in front of the mirror I had noticed there was a large Bow tied on the back of a dress, and....that I looked like a girl. 

"I can't believe you have me going like _this_."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you my young master."

I look over to see Eren in his Sebastian cosplay outfit, looking almost identical to his character. He had one hand placed behind his back and one across his stomach as he bowed down in apology.

Not to mention he had said this in the same accent Sebastian had in the actual show. I couldn't help but laugh. I slap a hand over my mouth and turn away from Eren. 

I can't believe I had just let such a revolting sound escape from my mouth.

"Did you just laugh?!"

"I don't know what your talking about brat." I snap back. 

"Are you feeling okay my young master?" He had gone back to using his british accent. 

When I look back up at him I see that his ears and tail are out. "No, I look like a girl." 

All Eren did was chuckle as he grabbed his messenger bag, exclaiming that we had ten minutes to get to Starbucks. "You're going to pay for this." I say as I walk into the apartments hallways locking the door behind me. 

"You should talk in an impersonation of ceil." I hear Eren whisper in my ear. 

"Fine! If that's what I have to do to get you out of my hair. Just hurry up before we're late you twat!"

This wasn't the first time I had to impersonate this character, just in case you may have forgotten, these were my costumes.

As we walked through the lobby to the parking lot, we had gotten some interesting looks as Eren held the door open for me and I made some remark about him needing to do things for me. I could already tell this was going to be an....interesting day.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*Eren's pov*

"Petra is that you?!" As the words escaped my mouth the figure turned around with a smile on her face. 

"Wow your cosplaying as Sakura?! You look just like her!" 

Petra was wearing a light pink wig with a red qipao dress with a zipper, and white circular designs on the short sleeves. 

She was also wearing black gloves, black low-heel calf-high boots, black shorts underneath a short pink apron skirt, and grey elbow protectors. She even had the forehead protector resting on top of the pink wig. 

When Pertra said cosplay, she was not messing around. "Thanks Eren, You guys look amazing!" 

I look over at Levi and see him scoff when she says this. "Oh how rude of me not to introduce myself, I'm Petra, but for today you can call me Sakura. Are you Eren's girl friend?" 

Surprisingly Levi introduces himself in his ciel voice. "Greetings, I am Ceil Phantomhive of the Phantomhive household, and this is my butler Sebastian." He says gesturing at me. "But you can call me Levi."

"Wait are you Levi, as in Eren's room mate Levi?"   
He dosen't answer her as he turns around and starts walking back to his car. 

"Come, we can ride my carriage to the convention." 

I run ahead to open the door for him. "My lord." I say bowing as I close the door behind him. I hadn't noticed until now, but my ears and tail had popped out and I don't think they were going to disappear anytime soon. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++  
*Levi's pov*

I hadn't even pulled up all the way when we were swarmed by hundreds of people walking too and fro. 

I honk my horn at the ones in my way. "Move it you twats! You better have insurance because I'll be more than happy to run you over!" 

When I finally did get a parking spot we were all eager to get out and see what this place had in store. We walked to different booths, stations, and exhibits, our small group getting the attention of just about everyone there.

"Im going to use the bathroom, you guys can keep walking around just meet me back near the dining tables later." 

"Alright I'll text you."   
Eren responds walking back over to me.

"Where do you want to go my young master?" 

"Anywhere but here." We were currently standing in front of the bathrooms which were overflowing with sweating people. 

"Would you like to head and check out the competitions being held my lord?" All I do is nod as I walk ahead of Eren. 

We weren't even half way there when we were stopped by about seven different groups of people asking to take pictures of us. When the next group asked I had just about had it. 

"Im sorry but I'm not taking anymore photos." I snap grabbing eren by the sleeve and weaved through the crowd. It was hard manoeuvring in such a frilly dress it was only a matter of time before-   
"Oh my! I'm so sorry!" The person who banged into me said. 

I slowly picked my self off of the floor fixing my dress. I look up to the sight of a Grell cosplayer.

"Oh my Ciel! I'm terribly sorry!"

She bowed quickly in apology, then jumped around swinging her chain saw in every direction, just as the character would have done. "Ah and Bassy...with cat ears?!" I squint at the person blabbing on in front of me suspiciously. Going on about if I was Eren's little sister and how he was able to find such realistic tail and ears, bla, bla, bla.

I scan the girl in front of me. 

She was wearing a red wig to match Grell's hair reaching down to the back of her knees and the bangs partially dropping into her face. At first it was hard identifying the person in front of me, But the more they spoke on I became more and more sure. "Hanji?" She froze mid sentence. 

"Thats me! Do I know you? I'm pretty sure id remember a cutie like you!" She says In a baby voice while pinching my cheeks. I slap her hand away and fix my voice to my original Levi tone.

"It's me glasses." I say rolling my eyes.  
" _LEVI_?!? I didn't know you cosplayed!!" 

Before I knew it, she had her phone out in record time and flashed about thirty photos before I was able to turn around and hide my face. "Im afraid my young master does not like photos, I'm going to have to delete those." 

"What?! _Why_!??"

Eren smiles with a devilish grin. "Because I'm simply one _hell_ of a butler." I scoff folding my arms over my chest. I wonder exactly how long he's been waiting to say that. 

I see Eren bend down slightly to whisper into Hanji's ear, but despite his hushed tone, I caught every word. "Don't actually delete those. You think you could send them to  
m-" 

"C'mon Eren were going to enter into one if those competitions, don't want to be late." I link my arm through Eren's and start leading him in the direction of the dining area, away from the. 

"Wait? _Eren?_!" Hanji- or Grell- screams, sounding like she was about to explode. "Yeah...that's me, why?" She squealed, sounding as annoying as ever. She pulled out her phone once more and snapped a picture of Eren and me, still arm in arm. "That's a keeper!" And with that she was gone. Running away like the maniac she was. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

*Eren's Pov* 

"You know you want to~" I say dragging levi behind me. 

"Yes, that's the reason why I'm resisting you, because I _want_ to do this."   
"Entering a cosplay contest could be really fun!" I say walking up to the person handing out the entrance tickets to said contest.   
"Two tickets please." 

"Are you entering? Or watching?" 

"Entering." Levi says cutting in. I couldn't help but smile. _Yes! He's in_.

"I'm going to kill you." He says under his breath, shooting me one of his signature glares.   
"And your names?" 

"Levi and Eren." 

"Alright, Participants can enter either the runway competition or the skit competition, but all participants have to enter the workmanship competition." 

"Okay sounds good. We'll enter the run way competition and workmanship." I say nearly bouncing up and down. I was too excited for my own good, but I couldn't help it!   
"Okay, and you're beginners right? Please step to the left, the competition will start in five minutes." 

We walk off to the side next to a group of people in costume and was impressed by their choices. 

Not before long our group was being herded by the staff to the back stage so we could enter onto what I'm guessing was the run way. "I'm so nervous! What do we even do when we get up there?" 

Levi rolls his eyes then smirks up at me. "Just act like yourself, I'll be there too since you're allowed to have more than one person in a runway group." 

Suddenly the people that were in front of us had disappeared up a set of stairs leading to the cosplay competition run way signalling that we were next.   
"Okay, you two are up next." 

There was without a doubt that my ears and tail were out, but I ignore them and grab Levi's hand in a manor that Sebastian would hold Ciel's and I 'help' him up the set of stairs, walking onto the run way. 

I was momentarily shocked by the amount of cheering and camera flashes that were taking place. I hadn't even realised there were that many people here. 

Levi and I walk to the end of the runway lined with flashing lights and I decide to add a little something and give levi a twirl, by lifting our hands up and making him spin underneath them in a dancing manor.   
The crowd seemed to like this because their cheering increased and we turned around walking back the way we came. We watch as the rest of the competitors lined up waiting for the next half of the contest, which was the skits. 

Since we weren't apart of that half of the competition, Levi and I find a seat in the back to wait on until It was time for the workmanship competition. 

*•*•*•*

"All contestants! Please line up on the stage. The judges will be inspecting your outfits for the final competition of workmanship. The results for the winners will be announced shortly after." 

Everyone follows the workers instructions and lines up on the stage. 

"I'm so nervous." I whisper to Levi as we stand in front of the crowd, and the watchful eyes of the judges. 

"For what?" 

"To find out the results! How are you so calm?"

"I've done this all too many times before." Right when the words escape his mouth his eyes widen slightly and he turns his head away from me. 

"Wait, _what_?" 

"W-What are you going on about? I didn't say anything, brat." 

I shouldn't have been so surprised, I mean Levi had a hidden key for a walk in closet filled with costumes. It should have been expected that he had been in these types of competitions before. 

Time had apparently flown because before I knew it, the judges were ready to give out results. 

"The third place winners for the run way part of the competition is..." 

They called out someone's name, and who they were cosplaying as which was someone named 'fire fist ace', from one piece. The man walked forward and claimed his cash prize and small certificate award. 

"Second place winner is..." The called off another name and my spirits shrunk slightly when our name wasn't called. There were plenty of other costumes here that were obviously better than ours so I highly doubted we were to get anything higher than second place. 

"And first place is..." My eyes widen and I feel Levi shift slightly next to me. They hadn't called our names. I don't know why I had expected us to win, the others definitely deserved it, but I was good sport so I convinced Levi to stay behind and wait until the results for all three different categories were finished. 

"Alright all of the categories have gotten their selective winners, can we go now?" 

I sigh, still slightly deflated from our loss. "Yeah.." 

"Last but not least...The winners for the Best in Show award goes out to a team of two..." 

I stop walking and turn back to the judge standing on stage. Levi and I were a team of two. "They go by the name..." I have a name! 

"Levi and Eren, cosplaying as Sebastian and Ciel from Black Butler." 

My heart felt like it was getting ready to rip out of my chest with how fast it was beating. I couldn't help but laugh as I grabbed Levi's arm dragging him up onto the stage behind me to collect our reward.   
"Congratulations you two!" The judge says as he hands us a large trophy filled with...   
"As best in show winners, you won the grand prize of $1,000 each! And a nice trophy to go along with it!" 

*•*•*•*  
It took us the longest time to find our way out of the crowd. "We should go meet up with Petra." I suggest. I'm pretty sure we've kept her waiting long enough, but I couldn't wait to show her what Levi and I had won. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

*Levi's Pov* 

 

We find Petra sitting at one of the dining tables and eren runs up behind her making the girl jump in surprise. 

"Gosh Eren, you nearly gave me a heart attack...What's this?" She says pointing at the shining award in Eren's hand. 

Before answering Eren turns back to me flashing me a smile. "We entered in a cosplay competition and won!"   
"Wow! Sounds like you two were busy! I had my share of fun too, I met five voice actors from two of my favorite Animes!" 

Eren and Petra continued to talk on about what the other had been doing and I just stood listening with a small half smile plastered on my face until Eren brought up my dress into the conversation. 

I roll my eyes cutting him off. 

"I seriously wished you picked a better cosplay out fit for me, Eren." 

"Oh, that's right! I did." he says chuckling. I squint my eyes at him. 

"What do you mean?" He takes the messenger bag off from around his shoulders and hands it to me. "I was going to tell you earlier but you seemed to be enjoying the dress an-" 

"Shut up." I snatch the bag from his hands and walk into the men's bathroom getting plenty of lifted eye brows and confused looks as I did so, do to what I was wearing. 

I stand in one of the stalls and open the bag expecting the worse. But when I pull out the costume I'm quite impressed in the brats clothing choices. I take off the frilly dress and the knee high boots and tight gloves and Unclip the pigtail extensions that I was wearing.

I pull out the leather mask, that had two silver cylinder, bolt-like designs protruding from the side,that covered my whole face except for my left eye. There was the printing of a lipless mouth that shows large, gnashing teeth, designed into the mouth part of the mask. It was made with a zipper in between the teeth, which I made sure to zip up. I then put on a pair of black skinny jeans and a loose fitting blue-green hoodie with two black stripes around the left sleeve. I slip on my black combat boots that I was previously wearing with my last outfit.

Before I walk out I decide to check if there was one more thing.... _contacts_. I reach in and grab the colored contacts and put it into the one eye that wasn't covered my the mask. The contact covered my whole eye making it black where it was supposed to be white, and where it was supposed to be storm gray, blood red. I was now Kaneki from Tokyo ghoul. My new costume was complete and it was more...me. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

When I thought we were getting a lot of attention earlier, that was nothing compared to right now. "Oh my gosh look is that Kaneki?"

"Is that _Sebastian_?" "Wow it's Sakura, hurry and take a picture!" I was secretly enjoying the amount of attention we were receiving but I was confused on why everyone seemed to be watching us when there were plenty of other cosplayers. 

We continued walking at loud voice echoed on speakers somewhere above. "The relay race is about to start! Anyone else who would like to join please head over to back lot of the convention!" All three of us exchange glances and take off running toward the back lot. 

After weaving through people walking in the opposite direction we were headed in, we Finally reached the location the relay was being held. We all stood in awe at what was set up in front of us. A large Obstacle course was set up stretching for what looked like about a mile. We got in line right as they were letting people onto the course to line up at the starting line. When all the teams of 2-4, (but in our case 3,) were set up in a line they explained the rules. "There will be a worker tying your legs together! After everyone is tied in, we will send off the signal, telling you to begin your race. You will have to go through a series of obstacles to get to the finish line. The first team to cross that line as a team wins! There will be cash prizes for the first, second, and third place winners!" As they finished explaining these instructions, someone had tied neon green ribbons around Petra, Eren, and my feet attaching us, making it nearly impossible to walk. We hear shouting and cheering from the crowds. 

"Ready! Set!"

At the word 'set' what looked like hundreds of canons went off that shot out thick white foam out onto the course. Great, way to make things more difficult than they already were. 

" _GO!_ " 

Everyone ran. Well at least tried to. The team of two next to us face planted before taking their first step. I was not going to end up like that. Because I was in the middle I put my right arm around Petra's waist and my left around Eren's. 

"Alright we're taking this one step at a time." First Eren and my foot, then Petra's and mine. As we got used to moving like this we started to move faster until we were going at the same speed as someone who might be jogging. That was, until we reached the first obstacle. It was a cylinder tube that was hollow in the middle. "Do they expect us to crawl through that or something?" Eren asks looking around nervously.

I also look around, and notice that we are currently in first place. "Well it's wide enough for all of us to fit going in side by side, so let's just go." Petra suggests. I nod and start to crouch down, Petra and Eren doing the same to stay balanced. We have to crawl on our hands and knees until we finally reach the end of the small tunnel. When Eren stands up, Petra hadn't which caused the person in the middle of the two to fall face first. And _oh goody_! That was me. 

"Levi are you okay?" Eren says helping me up . Thank goodness the mask I was wearing covered my mouth because I got a face full off what ever this foam was. "Next time wait until were all ready brat." 

Now that all off us were back to walking in sync I noticed that a team of two had passed us. The others seemed to notice as well because our pace had started to quicken. The small team in front of us glanced at us and also quickened. "Horse face?!"

I look up at Eren when he says this. One of the two members looks at us and does a double take. "What are _you_ doing here?" He says scowling at us. "Oh _hi_ jean! I didn't expect to see you here."   
"Petra? You're here too?"

I was completely lost. Who was this Jean kid? The boy's-jean's-partner turned to look at us. Wow talk about a freckled forest. "Who are you talking to?" He says lightly.

"Oh no one jus-" he didn't get to finish his sentence because both him and his team mate fell on an on coming set of tire steps. 

*•*•*•*

It had proabably been about fourty-five minutes until we were one blockade away from the finish line. We were currently in first, but Jean and some other team were close behind us. The last obstacle was...a giant inflatable slide and at the end of the slide was the back and white checkered finish line. 

We had to grab onto a knotted rope and climb the steep slope of the inflated slide to get to the top. My arms and legs were already aching, And I didn't think I would be able to handle this.

"Ugh I don't think I can last any longer." Petra whines next to me echoing my thoughts. 

"Come on were almost done!" Eren says. How was this brat not tired? 

That's when I remembered he wasn't exactly human...

All three of us pulled as hard as we could elevating slowly but surly. When we finally did reach the top we all layed there for a few seconds catching our breath. We didn't bother standing up, we just crawled to the edge and let ourselves fall tumbling over each other all the way to the bottom. 

When we reached the bottom I look at the ground beneath me and all i see is black and white. Wait, what? 

"Congratulations! You are our first place winners! And it looks like it's a team of three! Very impressive!"

I felt someone untying the neon bangs holding us together. I run my hands over my ankles, thankful for the new found relief. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++  
It was now 10:30pm and we were now headed back to my car. "Im so _tired_." Eren wined, his tail dragging on the floor. "I think we all are, you just need to hang in there until we reach th-" Petra stopped mid sentence when we heard a thud behind us. Eren had collapsed on the floor. I run over to him, but my worry quickly faded when I heard him snoring quietly.

I roll my eyes and lift him up holding him bridal style. He was surprisingly lighter than he looked so carrying him took almost no effort. When we reached the car, I placed Eren in the back seat while Petra sat in the passenger seat. We drove on in a comfortable silence but it was broken by a growling noise emulating from the young girls stomach. She blushes looking away from me.

"I can stop somewhere if you'd like."

"Really? You wouldn't mind?"

I shake my head as we pull up in to a Carls Jr.  
"Here I'll go in, tell me what you want."

"Just a chicken sandwich and fries. Oh and a small sprite." 

She starts pulling her wallet out of her purse. "Ive got you covered."

And I get out of the car before she could protest. I walk in causing the cashier to look up at me. The only thing was he looked horrified, as if I were some two headed freak straight out of American horror story.  
"L-Listen I d-don't want any trouble." I squint at the young man. What was he talking about?

"Yeah neither do I...but I would like a chicken sandwich, a meadium order of fires and a small sprite." 

When the cashier shows no sign in moving I snap my fingers in front of him. "Hello? Is there somthing on my face?" When he slowly nods i reach up and touch my face realising I'm still wearing my Tokyo Ghoul mask. 

_Oops_.

"Oh I'm just on my way back from Otaku Con. Did you think I was going to rob you or something? If I wanted to rob somewhere I think I would have had the descency to go to the bank across the street." I say jokingly pointing out the door. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Sorry that took so long." I say handing the bag of food and drink to Petra. "The guy thought I was mugging him." I chuckle at the recalling of the moment.

"Oh sorry! I had forgotten to remind you to take off the mask." she says shyly. I shrug getting into the car. 

"Too late now." I say turning on the car. "Plus, That isn't even the strangest thing that has happened to me today." 

++++++++++++++++++++++++

After dropping Petra off, I drove back to my place, Eren still passed out in the back seat. After I parked in my usual parking space in front of the complex I get out debating what I was going to do with Eren. Since he was sprawled out across the back, taking up the three seats the back provided, I sat on the edge of the seat nearest his feet with my back to him and start pulling his legs. Once his legs are successfully wrapped around my waist I reach back for his arms and wrap them around my neck. There. A piggy back ride. 

I stand up, Eren nearly sliding off my back. It would help if he wasn't asleep.   
After securely repositioning him on my back, I started walking to my apartment after using the side of my hip to close the car's door. 

I walk into my room letting Eren slide off my back and onto our bed. I noticed I had started saying 'our' rather than 'my' or 'his'. 

I pull the covers up to the young neko's chin I stand there looking down at him. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, the corner of his lip slightly uplifted. Even in sleep the boy never stopped smiling. I hadn't noticed but I had been leaning in closer and closer to the sleeping neko in front of me, the distance starting to close between us. 

I stop my self, remembering I'm still wearing my mask. I unbuckle, and slide the leather face mask up and over my head. I also slip out the color contact in my left eye. 

Throwing out the contact, and placing the mask on the bedside table I lean in again closing the distance between Eren and me once again. I settle on setting a light kiss on the unsuspecting neko's cheek. Even though it was just his cheek I still felt heat rise to my own cheeks. 

_Why had I done that_? I shake my head not wanting to think about it. I just hoped that Eren would never find out about what I just did. I walk out of my room and into the restroom. 

I really needed a shower that would hopefully wash away with it the substandard events that occurred today.


	11. Chapter 11

*Eren's Pov*

  I'm pretty sure Levi had thought that I was asleep. The truth was, I was lazy. I had chosen to just lay limply on Levi's back as he carried me into the apartment.

So when Levi had lain me in bed and just stood there, it left me kind of confused since I had my eyes closed. Then suddenly, out of no where, I felt soft lips being brushed against my cheek. I stiffen right when they are placed, hoping that the figure leaning over me didn't notice. He eventually stands back up and hear retreat into the bathroom. Right when I hear the light click of the door closing, I shoot up in my spot on the bed.

 My heart was pounding and I'm pretty sure my face was a deep shade of red. I slowly reach up and lightly touch the spot I had felt Levi's lips on my cheek. Why was my heart pounding so hard? We're only friends. _Right_? Could his actions mean he would want to be something...more?

 My thoughts were cut short when my stomach growls, and I realise that I haven't eaten dinner yet.

 I jump out of bed throwing the covers off of me and start getting the supplies out of the fridge to make myself a BLT sandwich. There's no way I'm missing a meal. I'm pretty sure the choice is simple for others and not just me. I mean sleep, or food?

 _Obviously_  food.

 I turn on the stove and grab a pan from a cabinet wanting to cook my bacon and eat it fresh.

 While I wait for the stove to heat up I chop off pieces of lettuce and cut a plump tomato into thin slices.

 I place the strips of bacon on the hot stove and smile at the satisfactory sizzling of the meat. I inhale taking in it's mouth watering fragrance. I lick my lips unconsciously as I wait for the meat to cook. _Curse the meat obsessive cat part of me_.

Once the strips of bacon were done I place them in between the bread topped with tomato and lettuce and turn off the stove, looking forward to my midnight snack.

 I grab the sandwich in between both of my hands and open my mouth to bite into it. I do this all the while turning around to walk back to the bedroom, but am stopped when I see levi standing behind me. He had obviously just got out of the shower, because he was only wearing pajama pants and still had a towel hanging around his neck. Despite the towel, small droplets of water dipped off of the ends of his hair and slowly ran down his arms and back.

 I close my still open mouth and smile looking around nervously, wanting anything but to make eye contact.

 "What are you doing up?" Levi asks squinting his eyes at me suspiciously.

 I look down at the floor and start walking back to the room. "Oh, I've been up." As soon as the words left my mouth I freeze, instantly regretting my choice of words.

  _My mouth seriously need a filter_.

 "What?"

 To prevent myself from answering I take a huge bite of the sandwich in my hands and turn back to him shrugging my shoulders. "You did that on purpose you brat."

 I nod my head. "Mm-hm."

 Levi rolls his eyes. "Fine. Then if you're awake, go take a shower and change.

" I swallow before answering. "After I'm done eating!" I playfully yell at him taking another bite of my sandwich.

 "You better sit down with that, you're going to end up getting the floor messy with your crumbs."

 I laugh, nearly choking on my sandwich and ignore his instructions and start run around the apartment, jumping over the couch and circling the coffee table.

"I said sit down!" He starts to chase me and at some point my ears and tail had appeared.

 "Ha-ha! I don't want to!" I place the last bits of sandwich into my mouth and chuckle as I continue to be chased.

 I glance behind me to see if Levi was close enough to catch me, and I trip on the edge of the couch causing the man in close pursuit to fall on top of me. I grunt slightly as he lands on top of me and to get him off, I roll onto my back and start to tickle him. He tries to squirm away from my hands, fighting the smile starting to play on his lips and I hesitate when I notice this.

  _Ah, so he's ticklish_...

 At my slight pause, he takes advantage and suddenly reaches up and starts tickling at my sides.

 I laugh loudly, trying to get out from under him. I playfully kick and punch at him, but no matter what I did he stayed planted on top of me.

 "S-Stop! I-I c-can't! Haha!" I shout between laughs.

 "Don't do things if you can't handle them being done to you."

 He continues tickling me and I can feel tears forming at the corners of my eyes. I can barely breathe as I slap at his hands trying to make him quit.

 Levi suddenly grabs my wrists and pins them above my head. He bends down and whispers into my ear. "Next time obey, and this won't happen."

 My heart nearly pounds out of my chest and I nod slowly in response. He lifts his head up again to the point where our noses were nearly touching.

 He stairs down at me with an intense look in his steel-grey eyes, unblinking.

 I try lifting up my hands to see if he would let me go, but at my struggling his grip only tightens. He starts leaning in closer, making the distance between us smaller. I was surprised my heart hadn't ripped out of my chest with how hard it was currently pounding.

_Was this really happening?_

Right before our lips touch Levi lets out a small sigh, quickly releasing my wrists and standing up.

"Go get ready for bed. It's late." He says looking away from me.

I slowly get up off of the floor and walk into the bathroom as instructed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*Levi's pov*

I run my fingers through my hair and take a few breaths to compose my self.

  _What was I just about to do?_

I reach for my coat and take it off of the coat rack and slide it on, walking out of the apartment, then out of the complex and into the cold night.

I breath out watching the puff of warm air that escaped my mouth as I did so.

 I just need to be alone. I'm still confused on my feelings toward Eren. I always seemed to feel weird around him, like I needed to be close to him, finding the very presence of him comforting. _But what does that all mean?_

I shake my head. I needed time to think, so I continue to walk aimlessly not really caring where I would end up.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*Eren's pov*

 I finish getting ready for bed and walk out of the bathroom. I stand in the middle of the room listening closely for any signs of life, and find that there was no other sounds in the apartment.

Levi wasn't here.

 "Levi?" I shout out searching through various rooms. Despite the obvious, that he wasn't here, I still wanted to make sure. But as my unsuccessful search through the apartment continued, I start to panic when I realise that I am alone.

  _Should I go looking for him? No, it would probably end up how it did last time... I should just wait it out._

 My thoughts were interrupted by the phone I had only recently bought buzzing violently. I slide the screen when I see that i had just received about twenty texts from an unknown number.

**Unknown: 1:45am**

**Hello! My darling Eren!!! Don't ask how I got your number (everyone does) because I won't tell!**

**Here's the picture you asked for ;)**

**~Hanji**

I laugh out loud clenching my side at the picture taken at the otaku con. _We looked ridiculous! Was that really only a few hours ago?_

.

I save the picture giggling at it again and jump onto the bed grabbing Levi's laptop and typing in the password.(It had taken me forever to figure it out, but I watched him type it in once and remembered it letter for letter). It was a fairly obvious password if you asked me 'mot de passe' hm, _classic_.

Recently I had just discovered few of the many things that the internet has to offer. Amazon, YouTube, this weird site thing called omegal. Despite the...interesting people on there, i always got a laugh out of the convos that took place.

YouTube in particular was one of my favourites though, so I decided to go onto that, and look up some of the stupid stuff I usually looked up on here. I lay stretched across the bed, the lap top positioned in front of me as I searched up Vines and fail videos. I don't know how much time had passed, but I told myself I would turn the computer off when Levi came back.

*•*•*•* 

I look at the time displayed on the bottom corner of the screen and see that It had already been three hours since I had started watching videos and Levi still wasn't back.

My eyes were starting to close do to the time of night, so I pause the current video that was playing and close the laptop, placing it on the bedside table.

 _There's nothing to worry about, he'll be back in the morning_... 

I scoot myself underneath the covers, missing the usual warmth of Levi's presence, and close my eyes.

_Right?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://absolutelyfangirl975.tumblr.com/image/116434240277
> 
> Use this link to see the picture Hanji sent Eren. Enjoy;)


	12. Chapter 12

I shoot upright from my spot on the bed and am instantly filled with dread when I see that no one is there. 

I jump out of bed and search through the apartment and see that it's exactly how i left it last night. No signs of a specific someone who had a habit of cleaning everything to the point where it looked brand new. 

I sigh and look up at the clock hanging on the wall that read   
7:25 am. 

_I guess I should get ready for work. Levi should-no, will- be back when I get back._

*•*•*•*

After I finish freshening up, somewhat taming my unruly mop of hair, and changing into my work's uniform, I head outside into the cold winter air and start my walk to Starbucks. 

The whole walk my thoughts were filled with possible reasons Levi would have left. 

_Did I do something wrong?_ If what got him mad was me running around his apartment while eating I could stop that from ever happening again. Id be willing to eat the rest of my meals out side if that would mean brining Levi back, but yet he wasn't here. _I'm sorry. Please just come back._

Before I knew it, I was walking into Starbucks and the small bell above chimed as I entered. 

"Goodmorning Eren!" Petra says, pausing her current actions of cleaning the table tops to wave at me.   
I give off a half smile and lazily wave back. "Hi Petra." 

"Hey...is everything alright?" 

I take in a deep breath smelling the slight scent of fresh coffee beans, and close my eyes. When I release the breath I open my eyes forcing a smile. "Yeah, just worried about something." 

I walk behind the cash register and start setting up the machines and grabbing a few of the supplies needed to make the drinks that were ordered.   
No matter what I did to distract myself, I couldn't get levi out of my head and kept worrying that it was my fault he was gone.

I must have been making a face because I hear Petra giggle. I look up to see her sitting on one of the bar stools in front of me, her chin resting one of her hands.   
"We had a lot of fun the other day, and I want to thank you for coming with me, but why are you so down all of a sudden? You're always so cheerful, I half expected you to come in laughing and talking non stop about the con. What's got you in such a sour mood?" She says sweetly. 

I sigh in defeat. "I-I...Levi, he-"

I was cut off by the bell above the door ringing. 

I smile waving at the customer "Welcome to Starbucks!"   
I turn back to Petra who slid off the bar stool and started making her way behind the counter. I put a hand on her shoulder and whisper in her ear. "I'll tell you after work." She gives me a curt nod in agreement. "Fine, after work." 

*•*•*•*

I flip the open sign on the glass window to 'closed' and Petra stands behind me with her arms crossed over her chest when I turn back around. "Okay Eren, spill." 

I glance at the freshly made coffee in my hand in confusion then back up at Petra. "But I just made it..." 

"I meant, tell me what's been bugging you!" She says giggling. 

_Oh._

"I-I'm probably just overreacting, but L-Levi, he's gone missing." 

Petra's eyes widen in pure shock when I say this. "What?! How long has he been gone?" 

"Well he left last night, and wasn't here this morning. I'm just hoping he'll be back when I get home from work." 

"You have my number, if you get there and he's not, give me a call. I'm always here to help." 

"Thanks Petra." She walks up to me and gives me a small, but comforting hug then opens the front door to leave. 

I walk out after her, pulling the red scarf I had around my neck up a little higher.

Petra and I stay in a comfortable silence as we walk together since our places were somewhat close, but eventually she would be turning right and me left at the next fork in the road. 

No longer thirsty, I toss my half drank coffee into a trash can on the side walk near our separating point.   
When we do reach it and split off, I wave her goodbye one more time and I break out into a sprint wanting to get back home as soon as possible. 

I make it to the complex and bolt up the stairs- not wanting to be patient and wait for the elevator- and stop when I reach the apartment door. 

Today Starbucks closed at 9:00 it probably took me about ten minutes to get here. By now where ever Levi is-or was-he should have gotten back by now. I pull out the key to the apartment and slowly insert it, turning the handle. I thrust the door open and my heart sinks when I am greeted by silence. Everything was in the same place as it was this morning, telling me that Levi had not In fact come back. 

I fall to my knees and put my face into my hands. 

I didn't even care that I hadn't bothered closing the apartment door behind me. My heart was aching and I couldn't bring my self to care right now. 

I yell out in frustration and sadness and I soon feel warm tears starting to tumble down my cheeks. I don't know why I was crying, and the feelings I was feeling were all new to me. I felt betrayed and torn apart but somewhere deep inside I felt longing in sadness, because I knew I was most likely the one who caused this to happen in the first place.

_I don't know what I did wrong but please come back._

I cry out louder choking on a sob. My face still rested in my hands, and tears rolled onto my fingers, down my chin and onto my clothes. But I didn't care. I only wanted Levi back. 

_I'm sorry. For whatever I did. For whatever it means, come back._

I rub at my eyes, trying to blink away the tears that blurred my vision and stood up to close the apartment door. Once the door clicks shut I collapse again and curl up on the floor hugging my knees, too tired to walk myself to the bed. 

_Please._

And with thoughts of Levi filling my head, I fall asleep.


	13. Chapter 13

I stretch out from my position on the floor, my back cracking as I did so.  
I sit up, quickly looking around the apartment to see if I was no longer alone. To my dismay it was just me. Again. 

I rub the sleep from my eyes as I feel for my phone in the back pocket of my pants and type in Petra's number when I find it. 

"Hello?" 

"Hey-" My voice sounded all scratchy and was still filled with sleep. I move the phone away from my face and clear my throat. "Hey Petra." 

"What's up Eren? Everything alright?" 

"Yeah. I just was wondering if you could get horse- I mean _Jean_ to fill in my place at work for a couple hours. I promise I'll be back before lunch." 

"Alright I'll give him a call. Oh and Eren. We're going to be getting another employee today! Maybe you'll get to meet them." 

I smile at the thought. I've always loved meeting new people. _Hm, I wonder what they'll be like. A boy? Girl? Goofy? Serious?_

"I'll be looking forward to it. Well, I'll be seeing you then. Bye!" I end the call and hurry with my shower and getting dressed. I hurriedly slip on a pair of skinny jeans, a plain black t-shirt that hugged my sides rather nicely, and a black leather jacket to top it all off. As I rush toward the door I'm sure to grab my favourite red scarf and wrap it loosely-but snug-around my neck. 

I walk out into the cold and stand there for a few minutes when I realise that I have no clue where I'm headed. 

_Where did Levi work again? I think it's this way...?_

I'm pretty sure the walk to his ex-work place was like ten minutes, but thirty minutes later, I finally made it. 

I walk through the glass double doors and am instantly hit with recognition.  
I remember following Levi here one time...

I retrace my steps from that day and ended up in the room with Levi and that one other worker with the crazy hair and glasses. _Wait she's the one who we saw at Otaku Con right? Maybe she can help me find Levi._

I lightly knock on the door and walk in.  
The man at the desk look up lifting up one of his massive eye brows.  
"O-oh, you're not Hanji, wrong room sorry!" I start to close the door again, when I am called out.  
"You're looking for Hanji?" 

I look back up at the blond man who start to stand up...and wow he's tall.  
"Y-yeah I just needed to ask her something...about someone." 

"Hm." He smiles kindly at me and presses a button on his desk phone and an all too familiar voice responds.  
"Hello my darling Erwin~ how can I be of service." She starts laughing. Did I miss something? What's so funny? "Ah, Hanji, there's a young...man here to see you." 

"What?! Hmm state his business. _Oh!_ And what does he look like?"

"He says he's here to ask you something about someone..." 

"Is this about Moblit?! I swear I don't know wh-" 

"No. I doubt it's about him. Anyway back on track. You said to explain what he looked like?"

I _loved_ how they talked like I wasn't standing _right_ here. 

"Messy brown hair, blue-green eyes. His name is..." 

I whisper my name to the man, Erwin, as he tells Hanji.

"...And his name's Eren." 

There was a silence and literally two-count 'em- two seconds later an excited Hanji comes barging into the room still holding the office phone. The stretchable chord had surprisingly been able to reach from where ever she came from to here. 

"Eren?! Oh, my adorable Eren, came to see me!!" 

"Actually I came here to ask you something important." 

She stops smiling and her expression goes serious. "How important?." 

"It's about Levi." That seemed to get both Erwin and Hanji's attention. 

"He's gone missing, and I needed to know if you've seen him. I came to you because you're the only person I know that knows him." 

"Missing?! As in he ran away?" Hanji questions grabbing both of my shoulders. 

Erwin stands up behind me and let's out a sigh. "I thought he grew out of that old habit, guess some things never change." 

"What do you mean?" I ask turning to him. 

Hanji answers instead. "You see, Erwin and I are Levi's childhood friends, practically known each other forever! And when Levi was younger he had this habit of his where when he was angry or stressed or something he would just storm off. Except I guess he blocked out everything except for his thoughts and would just blindly walk around for who knows how long. All I'm saying is if he's gone off and started that up again he could get into some serious trouble."

Hanji releases me from her monster grip and I look from her to Erwin. "So are you saying I have to just wait it out or something." 

"We never said that, but that would be the wiser option." Erwin says taking his seat at his desk. 

"Oh. Okay." I start to walk out of the office. "Thanks though." 

"Bye Eren! Text me when he comes back!"  
_If he comes back._

I don't respond as I close the office door and proceed in leaving the building. 

Guess I should head over to Starbucks. Petra's probably suffering having to be stuck with horse-faced Jean. 

I start to pick up my pace to get there quicker, and the cold winter air bites back. My scarf flys up into my face startling me. In my moment of shock I throw it off of me causing it to be blown away and into the air by the wind. 

Before I even realised what I had done I knew it was too late to save my scarf now. 

_Great, now I've lost my favourite human. And my favourite scarf._

*•*•*•* 

"Hello welco- oh hey Eren!" 

"Hey...Petra." I smile half heartedly. 

I see Jean look up at start taking his green apron off. "Whoa Eren you look horrible." 

I glare at him and ignore his little comment. "Hm. Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." 

Even though I wasn't looking at them, I'm pretty sure Petra elbowed him in the side do to the sound that escaped his mouth right after. 

"Thanks for filling in for me Jean." 

His eyes widen as he hands off his apron to me. "Wow, I don't think you've ever called me by real name. You're welcome I guess." He rubs the back of his neck with one of his hands and proceeds in walking out of Starbucks. 

Petra looks (up) at me expectantly. I know what she wants to know, but I shake my head slowly and she looks away. "I stopped by and talked to some of Levi's friends and they said I should just wait it out but-" my voice catches its self and the barista next to me puts a hand on my shoulder. "Eren, I want you to take today off. I won't say that I know what you're going through because I don't, but you're in no condition to work."

"But whose going to help you out here then." 

"The new employee should-" 

The door chimes above and a young girl walks in looking around with a stoic expression. "Ah, here she is now." 

I watch at the young girl with shoulder length jet black hair as she starts walking toward me. Our eye contact doesn't break as she proceeds in advancing closer. I gulp in fear as the serious looking female stops inches away from me. I close my eyes looking down, when I feel something soft being gently wrapped around my neck. I open my eyes in surprise when I recognise my favourite red scarf back where it belonged. "You dropped this." She says quietly, her board expression not leaving her face. 

"T-Thanks! How did you..." I was at a loss for words. 

"Eren, meet our new employee, Mikasa!" Petra says gesturing to the girl in front of me. Mikasa takes a step back and takes off the duffle bag she had hanging off one shoulder. 

She pulls out a matching green apron required for all employees and slips in on. I smile at her and hold out my hand to shake hers. She grabs it and shakes it lightly before letting go. "I'm Eren, I'll be look forward to working with you." And I really did, even though she look kinda scary with her intimidating stare, I knew she was going to actually end up being a nice person. 

"I guess I'll be going then..." I say trailing off with a sympathetic smile.

The cold October air blew onto my face as I opened the door, leaving the warmth of the cafe behind me. 

I slowly make my way back to the apartment still not in the happiest of moods and sulk up to the room. Before I start digging for my keys, I noticed that the door was slightly ajar. 

_My heart starts to pound wildly. What if Levi's back...._

I swear, if I open this door and its some burglar or something, I will wish ultimate pain upon you. Basically, I hope you step on a Lego. 

I swing the door open and see no one in sight. Someone was definitely here though, the apartment is cleaned up and... 

"Errreeeennn!!!" Hanji comes running out of the bedroom and out into the living room where I was standing. She crashes into me, suffocating me in a bear hug.  
"W-What are you doing here?" 

"I just came by to clean your apartment for you! I figured it was probably dirty, because name one man who's responsible enough to actually clean up after themselves with out being reminded. Besides, I though you would need the company." 

I couldn't help but smile at this girl's enthusiasm. She really did care, even though she barely knew me, she was kind enough to clean the apartment and hang out with me. 

"I don't know what you're into... but how do you feel about playing the Wii?" 

An evil grin stretches across her face as she flashes me her pearly whites.  
"What game do you have in mind?" 

"Mm what about...super smash bros? Or the house of the dead overkill? Nah. Hm, what about this one." 

I show her the cover and she squeals in excitement. 

"I guess we're playing Just Dance then!" I set up the game and synch the remotes as we get ready to play. I guess no ones played this game, because it asked us to make a username. I decided on betterthnU and Hanji chose 4evafab. Talk about worlds cheesiest names. 

I scroll through our song options and settle on a song called 'get low' 

As the screen loads for the round to start Hanji smiles looking at me. "Good luck Eren, ive never lost at this game~" 

"First time for everything." I retort with a smirk.

Boy had I been wrong. 

Hanji was already at a winning streak of twelve songs leaving me with no winnings. No matter what dance we chose, she would get 'perfect' on all the movements. 

I collapse on the couch behind me and just now notice that my ears and tail were out. _I wonder if Hanji noticed them at all. Eh, oh well._

"Are you secretly the inventor of Just Dance or something? How did you do that?" I say still out of breath. She smiles proudly sitting down next to me. "It just comes naturally I guess."  
I glance over at her and... _what?!_ She's not even sweating. 

Hanji readjusts her glasses that had somehow miraculously stayed on her head even with how much moving and 'dropping down' that was going on. 

I glance up at the clock that reads 5:43pm and suggest cooking dinner. 

"Yeah I could go for som- when did you put those on?" She points at my ears. 

"...So do you want spaghetti or something?" 

"You're avoiding my question~" She chirps at me with an face eating grin. 

"Spaghetti sounds good to me!" I stand up and make my way to the kitchen grabbing the ingredients and supplies. 

As i place the lid on the pot, waiting for the noodles to cook, My tail gets pulled my Hanji.  
"Ow! What was that for?" 

She lifts an eyebrow at me, then breaks out in a fit of laughter. "Did that actually hurt or something? It's only a clip on...right?" 

I look away from her to avoid answering the question. 

I glance at her from my pereferal vision as I respond. "Yeah...I put it on sometime during...our last break." 

"Mmhm." She didn't looked convinced. 

_Did she know I was lying?_

She squints at me suspiciously, leaning in closer. Hanji then leans back and turn to go back to the couch. "Welp, I'm going to play that weird looking zombie game you have." 

I sigh when she was finally done interrogating me and I proceed in cooking our dinner.

*•*•*•* 

"EREN!!" I choke on my drink when my name is squealed to me, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled. I cough pounding my chest, trying to get air back into my lungs. "Where did you learn to cook like this?! It's amazing!" 

Hanji starts shovelling forkfuls of spaghetti into her mouth.  
"Thanks." I cough out still shaken from her out burst. 

About ten minutes later we were done with dinner. Hanji, eaten four platefuls, and me just one. I can't even fathom how she had eaten all of that in a matter of minutes. 

I get up and grab Hanjis plate as well as mine and start to wash our dishes.  
"This has been a lot of fun!" Hanji says coming up behind me with a huge grin.  
I can't help but smile back. "It was, thanks for coming." 

"Anytime!" 

"You don't seem like you're in any rush in leaving," I start, turning toward her, "if you want you can spend the night." 

"YES! I'd love too! We can do all those dumb sleepover things you see in cheesy chick flicks!" 

I chuckle at the thought and finish the dishes and collapse onto the couch next to Hanji. When I glance over to talk to her she's gone. 

_I swear she was just sitting here..._

"Tag! You're it!" 

I look up at the figure who had just tapped my shoulder in confusion.  
"I'm it for what?" 

"Whaaa?! You don't know tag?" 

"No, enlighten me." I say dramatically, chuckling afterward. 

"When you get tagged by the person who's _'it'_ you become _'it'_ and have to tag a different player." 

"Hm. Okay so I'm _it_ now?" 

Hanji responds by laughing and running around the apartment. 

I laugh too as I stand up and start chasing her. I quickly catch up to her and tag her back then turn around to get away. I dash around the couch a few times, and through the kitchen-around the island table-and back through the living room.  
I glance behind me to see how close Hanji was to reaching me. 

_She's fairly close..._

When I face forward again, I notice I'm about to run into the back of the couch, so I jump....a little too late. 

When I attempt at jumping over the couch, one of my feet catches on the top of it and I face plant-hard. 

After a brief moment of excruciating pain, everything goes black. 

_Dangit. This probably means I passed out....oops_


	14. Chapter 14

I shift slightly in my spot on the bed. I don't remember falling asleep on the bed though... _oh well._

I roll over and wrap my arms around the figure lying next to me. 

_Wait. Does this mean..._

I keep my eyes closed, and breath in taking in an unfamiliar scent. Decent, but very unfamiliar. 

My eyes shoot open and when I am confronted with a girl with messy brown hair wrapped up in my arms I yell out in surprise taking my arms from around her, and kick her torso. 

She falls off the bed with a "umpff" and I sit up throwing the covers off of me and stand up out of bed. 

The person I had just kicked off the bed stands up and a wave of relief hits me when I see that it's only Hanji. I had almost forgotten that she had planned on spending the night here. 

"Oh sorry about that Hanji...you scared me!" 

She looked confused as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She then looks at me, then the bed, then back up at me. "OH! I'm so sorry!! Last night you passed out and so I brought you into here, but I was so worn out myself I must have just crashed!" She starts laughing after saying this. 

"Wait...last night?" 

_I've been out that long?!_

"What made me pass out for that long?" I mean, the ground is carpeted, and I think I at least made it over the couch, so what did I hit? 

"Oh you poor thing!" She laughs at me. "You tried jumping over the back of the couch, and your foot caught the edge. You made it over the couch, head first,  
...but managed to hit you're forehead on the coffee table in front of it."   
She rushes the last part out in a struggle of trying not to laugh. 

I blush out of embarrassment and look away from her leaving the bedroom. 

I stretch with a yawn turning on a few of the lights in the apartment and look up at the clock. 4:23.

_Ah, perfect time for breakfast. "Hey Hanji! Want some chocolate chip pancakes?"_

"Chocolate chip?!" 

"I'll take that as a yes." I grab the bag of chocolate chips that I keep hidden, and start preparing our breakfast. 

*•*•*•* 

"You're cooking has yet to cease impressing me Eren. These are great!" I chuckle at her eating a bit of pancake. "So Hanji, do you have work today?"   
She rolls her eyes. "Ugh. Yes."   
"Hm. Same." 

"You work Eren? You seem so...young." 

"Yeah, I work at the Starbucks a couple streets down." 

Hanji shoves the last of her pancakes into her mouth and puts her dishes into the sink. "Speaking of work. Thankyou for putting up with me my darling Eren. I've got to get down to Survey Corps Editing and Photography. I need to be there at, wha, five?" 

_Five? No doubt she's late._

Hanji starts gathering up all of her belongings and opens the door again. "Make sure you come by sometime again!" And with that she closed the door leaving me alone once more. 

My phone buzzes, indicating that I got a text. It's from Petra 

**Petra:**

**You have the early shift today. Remember shop opens up at 6.**

_What?! I totally forgot. Six is in...ten minutes! I still have to get ready._ I waste no time in stripping myself of my old clothes and jumping into the shower. I quickly scrub myself down, and get dressed into my Starbucks uniform, then grab my jacket and scarf hanging on the coat rack before running out of the apartment. 

When I walk into the cold night/morning (it was still kinda dark) the cold wind sends a chill through me. And it didn't help that my hair was sill wet from the shower.   
I let out a puff of breath as I sigh in relief when I wrap my warm scarf around my neck, finding its warmth comforting. 

When I finally make it to the cafe, I see someone standing in front of the locked door. They had their arms folded to keep in the warmth, but it was obviously not working if their slightly trembling body was anything to go by.  
"O-Oh I'm sorry to keep you waitin-   
Mikasa?" 

Mikasa turns and gives me a small smile. "What are you doing here so early?! You're going to get sick standing here in the cold!" 

I take my scarf off and start wrapping it around Mikasa's neck and draped it over her head until it completely covered her face- except for her eyes. 

She takes the parts that were on her face off, and wraps it properly. "Oh! Let me open the door so we can hurry and get warm." 

I take out my keys and unlock the door, stumbling inside. Mikasa in close pursuit turns on the lights, and flips the closed sign to open. I take off my coat and put on my green apron. When I turn around to face Mikasa I see that she already had her apron on, and hadn't taken the scarf off.   
"Aren't you going to take that off?" I ask pointing at the red scarf around her neck.   
She shakes her head 'no' and I shrug with a smile as I continue to set up the machines and register for the first customer. 

It wasn't until about ten minutes later that our first customer arrived. Just the usual college student who ordered coffee, then retired to a back table with their lab top. 

As I stood in the back room grabbing some milk (we were running low in the front) that I heard someone ask for me. "Does Eren work here? I heard that-" 

I peak my head out and see that Hanji was at the counter.   
"What's up Hanji!" I wave at her, flashing her a smile.   
"Ah! My darling Eren! I haven't seen you in forever!" 

"You saw me this morning." I say laughing. 

"I just came to see if you were doing any better today, oh I also would like two venti vanilla beans with _EXTRA_ caramel!" She says turning back at Mikasa. 

"Whose the second cup for? Erwin?" 

"Why would I buy drinks for anyone but mwah! Plus Erwin doesn't _like_ Carmel."   
I roll my eyes with a smirk and get to work in making her drinks.   
*•*•*•*

"Bye! Come again." I wave Hanji goodbye as she walks back out the door. 

"Who was that?" Mikasa asks blandly. 

"She's just a friend of mine, I think..." 

"Hm." She responds giving a curt nod, and we both get back to work. 

*•*•*•*

Around 2, Petra comes in to switch in for Mikasa. "Morning Petra." I say waving at her.  
"Hi Eren, you seem to be doing better. Any good news?" She asks expectantly. 

I look down shaking my head slowly. "No, not yet." 

"Oh. Okay." 

Mikasa gathers up her things and walks out from behind the counter. By the time she leaves Petra was already ready to start working. "So, how's our new employee?" 

"She's quiet, but I like her." 

"That's good." 

*•*•*•*

About an hour later, and no other customers had come in. Waiting, had caused my thoughts to wonder, and my thoughts wondering led to Levi. 

I stood at the counter with my elbows resting on the edge as I played with a pen. I rolled it back and forth as I let my mind wonder. 

What if Levi doesn't come back? I mean, I didn't even get to say a proper goodbye. 

He could have at least told me he was going to leave. Not unless he was mad at me...

I've never felt this way about anyone, or worried about someone this much. This new feeling was like a horrible emptiness filled with pain, that time could only partially heal. I don't think I would ever truly feel 'okay' again. 

"Eren? Are you alright?" I feel Petra's warm hand on my shoulder and I turn around to meet her gaze. I stand up straight. "Y-Yeah I'm-" 

I was cut off by the bell chiming above the door and look up to greet the customer. "Hello! Welcome to Star-"   
The words die in my throat when I see who walked through the door. 

What I was feeling right now was familiar to the feeling you get when you’re on a crowded subway at that too early hour in the morning and your face is submerged in someone else’s armpit and your toes are being crushed by someone else’s feet. Then, all of a sudden, right in front of you, a seat opens up. And as you’re sitting down, eye level at all the briefcase commotion, you feel as though the chaos can freaking twerk around you and it wouldn’t even matter, because the subway stops at you're designated area and you're free. 

You’d feel safe again. You’d feel detached. You’d feel exceptionally content. 

Don't judge I come up with crazy shiz when I'm excited. 

My exceptionally content moment is when I see the man with an all to familiar board expression with his raven black hair slightly wind swept. Walk in through the door. 

I jump over the counter not bothering to walk around, and run up to him, throwing my arms around his neck. 

Levi. It was Levi. 

I hadn't realised until now that I was sobbing like a child that had just dropped their ice cream, but I didn't care. 

I breath in Levi's familiar scent wanting to never let him go, but I release him of the death grip I had him in.   
His look of disgust from someone touching hugging him, quickly turns to a look of recognition then back to his normal board state. 

"I heard this place had great customer service, but I didn't think they were this friendly." He says smirking at me as I wipe away my tears.   
"Look Levi, I-I'm sorry. Don't ever leave again, I'm sorry for what ever I did, I won't do it again." I say, my voice wobbly and barely audible. 

I feel tears starting to come back and I let them fall. 

Levi walks up to me and wipes away my tears with his thumb. "What are you talking about brat." 

"Didn't you leave because you were mad at me?"

"No. I just needed to think about... _things._ " He says hugging me.  
I was actually stunned for a minute at his actions, but I hug him back, burying my head in his shoulder. 

"Where did you go...?" I whisper. Levi pulls away and looks up at me. 

"I was just walking blindly, but when I finally started paying attention, I realised I was seven cities over." 

_"S-Seven?!"_

Levi gives a curt nod, smirking at me, but it disappears and he squints at me suspiciously. "What are you doing here..." 

My eyes widen, but I let out a sight knowing I couldn't hide it forever. 

Levi's eyes flick down to my clothes then back up to meet my eyes. 

"I-I work here..." 

"Hm." He nods once then starts walking over to the cashier-Petra. 

"Wait, you're not mad?" 

"Why would I be mad? Besides, I suspected it for a while." He responds with a simple shrug. 

"How long is a while?" 

"Ever since someone snuck vanilla creamer into my coffee when I came here last." He responds with a sly smirk, glancing at me. 

I look away blushing at that memory.   
_He's suspected for that long?! Wow, real smooth Eren, as smooth as freaking sandpaper._

"Levi! Where have you been?" Petra says as she makes him the coffee he ordered. 

"Places." He says grabbing his coffee once it's made. Levi starts making his way to the door. 

_Wait, he's leaving already?_

He pushes the door open and stands in the doorway before looking back over his shoulder. 

"Get back to work Eren," he says looking back outside, "it was....nice seeing you again."   
Levi walks out the door and let's it close behind him. 

_Yeah, it was. But why did you have to leave so soon? Did he even find it 'nice' to see me again? Or was this all some sick joke?_  
I feel anger rising in me and I clench my fist at my sides. I dig my fingers into my clenched fists, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall yet again. 

I flinch when I feel a hand placed on my shoulder. "Listen Eren if you-" 

"I'm fine." I say cutting Petra off. Every thing is fine. 

_Maybe it wasn't and I just wanted it to be. What was I even getting worked up over?_

I take a deep breath closing my eyes and slowly release it. 

_Yeah....I'm not fine._


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting in while I have been busy finishing up with school.  
> Enjoy;)

*Eren's POV*

To distract myself from this day that seemed to be moving by rather slow, I grab a cleaning rag and settle on wiping down the unoccupied tables.

I just want to know why he didn't seem all that excited to see me again. _Was what I felt just mutual? He should just straight up say it if he feels that way!_  
"If you wipe any harder you're going to break the table."

I blink a few times and stand up straight, processing that someone had just spoken to me. I look over at the taller blond with surprisingly nice muscles, that would make even Erwin go to shame. He had his elbows resting on the back of one of the chairs and looked at me with a look I couldn't identify. I stare at the man, both of us not saying anything. When I realise I should respond, I open my mouth but I can't think of anything to say.

_Oh god, I've been staring too long. Think of something Eren. Think!!_

"If you don't mind," he says trailing his eyes downward, then back up at my face, "I'd like to sit down."

"O-Oh sorry about that!" I grab the rag I was using to wipe down the table and walk back behind the counter and awkwardly stand next to Petra. Well somewhat, she was in the middle of making a drink, so she was moving around every now and then.

She finishes making what I identify to be a double java chip frap. "Reiner! Your Java chip is ready!"

_Did she just say..._  
"Reindeer?"  
Petra giggles and playfully slaps my shoulder. "Don't be rude."

I look over to the man who I had just exchanged a weird silence with and watch as he starts to stand. He walks over and grabs the chocolaty drink. "Thanks." He says winking at me, even though it was clearly Petra he should be thanking.

The man, Reiner, finds his seat again and pulls out his phone, staring at whatever was on his screen.  
"Do you two _know_ each other?"

"Who? _That guy?"_ I say pointing at the buff blond.

"Yeah, he kept looking at you earlier and now you're watching him..."  
_Oops. Wait...he was staring at me? What for? Maybe I had something on my clothes._ I look down and see that I'm stain free. _Creeper._  
"No, I've never seen him before in my life."

*•*•*•*

"Ready to close shop?"  
I turn to Petra when she asks this. "Sure. We're going to have to tell that guy to leave though." It was only now that I realised the blond, Reiner, was still here. _Why had he stayed in the first place? He didn't look like a college student, and even if he was I'm pretty sure he couldn't get his work done by staring at the screen of his phone._

Petra walks from behind the counter and approaches Reiner's table. "Excuse me? Sir, you're going to have to leave. We're closing now." Reiner looks up from his phone and looks at me unblinking. He smirks then turns toward Petra. "Sure thing. I'll be on my way." He gets up and takes his time in heading out the door.  
"Kind of weird don't you think?" Petra says flipping the open sign so that it says 'closed'. "Hm?" I meet her eyes and walk from behind the counter.  
"How he stayed all the way until closing time? Not even the students we get here stay that long."

I furrow my eye brows. _So she thought so too?_ I shake off my suspicion and grab my bag. "Well, forgetting about him, I'm going to head off. See you tomorrow!" I wave to Petra as I walk out of Starbucks and head in the direction of the apartment complex.

*•*•*•*

I stand outside the apartment building and pause, remembering something. Levi was back. When I walk into the apartment, Levi will be there. I break out into a sprint and press on the button for the elevator. I tap my leg as I wait for the door to open. I can't stand to wait, I run to the stairs and skip every other step on the way up. Finally making it to the fourth floor I dash to the front door and stand in front of it. My heart pounding, and my breathing heavy, I can't bring myself to open the door.

I lean against it and to my surprise I hear voices emanating from the other side. I probably shouldn't be doing this but I press my ear against the door and listen.

 _Hm. It sounds like...Levi and...who was that? Hanji?_  
Someone suddenly broke out into a fit of laughter on the other side. _Yep. That's Hanji._

"You don't have to be a jerk about it!" I hear Hanji's voice say. It was muffled, but audible.  
"Well that's not my problem it's theirs." Levi responds. "Aww. Levi, come on."  
"Don't 'come on' me. Tch, go back, I'm going to find a better one."

_A better what? What are they talking about._  
"Just keep your cat-thing." She responds. _Had he told Hanji about me being half cat? No. He wouldn't have._

"But I don't like my cat-Neko-thing."

_B-but I'm a...surely he didn't mean me._

"You don't like Eren?!" Hanji nearly screams on the other side. I wait for Levi's response. Waiting for him to protest against Hanji's question but when no answer comes I stand up from the door. 

_Fine. If he feels that way I'll just-_  
As I stood up to leave I bumped into a mass of, something.  
"Oh. I'm sorry I didn-" I stop talking when I see that it was the man from Starbucks, Reiner.

"Hey," he says chuckling deeply, "what's got you in such a bad mood?" He inches closer and I back up bumping into the apartment door.  
"U-Um, I don't know what you mean."  
"Don't play dumb, I can tell something's got you angry. Why don't you tell me?"  
"I'm perfectly fine on my own."  
Reiner puts a finger under my chin and lifts my head up.

_What is he doing?_

I slap his hand away and turn around in attempt to get away. Before I could do so, I feel a hand grasp my wrist and I'm being pulled into Reiner's arms.  
"Where do you think you're going."  
He says smirking at me.  
_Let go you creep!_ I try pulling myself from his grasp but my struggle does nothing.  
I manage to turn in his grip so that my back is no longer to him, but he pushes me against the apartment door as soon as I do so.  
"Why don't you-" Reiner was cut off when the door he was pushing me against is swung open. I fall backwards onto my back and he falls on top of me. ,em >Oh gosh, I can't breath. So heavy!

"What the _hell?_ " I hear Levi say rather coldly. Off in the distance I hear Hanji cackling like the mad-man she was.

Levi's grabs the larger man off of me and I take a deep breath, finding being able to breath again rather comforting.  
I watch as the shorter man pushes Reiner against the wall, the look burning in his eyes sharp enough to kill.

"Eren do you know this guy?" Levi says between clenched teeth.  
Well technically I know him, but not on a personal level. "N-No." My answer comes out no louder than a whisper.

Levi pulls back an arm, getting ready to punch but I jump up off the floor and grab his harm. "Just...just let him go. It doesn't even matter." I mumble, not looking at Levi, but at the ground.  
"What do you mean?" He responds.

I shake my head, at a loss for words. "You don't care about me anyways, so why does it matter?" I say louder looking up at him.  
"I..." Levi looked at a complete loss of words.  
"If you didn't want to keep me, you could have just said so." I whisper, not trusting my voice. I walk out of the still open door and don't respond to the people calling out to me to come back.

*•*•*•*  
*Levi's POV*

*Seven minutes ago*

"Do we have to play this?"

"Of _course!_ " Hanji screams even though I'm sitting right here.

She starts up the game Mario Kart 8 and I roll my eyes as it loads the home page.

"Alrighty! I call being Daisy!" Hanji exclaims when the character selection area pops up.  
"Yeah, whatever. I'm just going to select random."  
I wait for the game to pick a character for me and frown when it stops on one that was princess peach in a pink cat costume.

"What the actual-"

"Okay, let's pick our cars and go!"

Five minutes into the game and I was disappointed with each outcome.

"Let me change my character. Now." I say pausing the game mid-race.

"No! Hurry up and finish the race."

"I'm _not_ pressing play until you go back."

"No. Because then I'd have to change mine." I don't really see how hers is any better. _Daisy? Are you kidding?_

"Find, but don't complain when I shove my controller down your-"

"You don't have to be a jerk about it!" Hanji exclaims, letting out a psychotic laugh.

"Well that's not my problem it's theirs." I say gesturing to my princess peach in a cat costume. She was slow af and all of her car options couldn't make a simple _turn_ on the maps we played.

"Aww. Levi, come on."

"Don't 'come on' me. Tch, go back, I'm going to find a better one."

"Just keep your cat-thing." She responds.

"But I don't like my cat-neko-thing." I explain.

She looks over to me with her eyes wide open. "You don't like eren?!"

I scowl at her.

 _I never said that. Wait, did she know about Eren being a...._  
I pause, looking away from Hanji before answering.

"Of course I... _like_...Eren." I whisper low enough so that I could barely hear it.

"Why did you pause?" She whispers back.

I look away from her and to the screen. "I didn't."

"Yes you-" she stops when a thump is heard against the front door.  
_That wasn't a knock was it?_ Surely the person would have knocked more than once if it were so.  
Then the sound came again.

I roll my eyes and stand up off of the couch. I swing the door open and I have to say I was surprised by the sight in front of me. Some guy was lying on top of Eren as they came falling though the entrance.

I don't know if it was anger or jealousy that was flowing through me but I was ready to kill someone. I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Eren.  
"What the _hell?_ "

*present time*

"Eren! Ere-" I give up on calling to him as he disappears down the hall.

"Well, this is awkward." The blond pinned against the wall says with a deep chuckle.  
I let go of the death grip I had him in. "Get out of my apartment." I spit the words at him as if they were fire. The boy shuffles out the door in the opposite direction Eren had gone in. _Good_

_I run down the hall after Eren and catch up to the neko that was walking at a slow pace.  
"Eren! Where are you going?"_

_He shrugs his shoulders, keeping his back to me.  
"Please look at me." I say sternly._

_Eren slowly starts to turn toward me, his eyes cast downward. Even with him not looking directly at me I could tell he was crying, and the sight broke my heart._  
"What's wrong? And why do you think I don't want you?" I ask taking a step closer.  
"I heard what you and Hanji were talking about. But don't worry. If you truly feel that way, I can leave." He sniffles.  
"What are you..." _Oh. Is that what this is all about?_ I couldn't help but chuckle at this strange misunderstanding. "We weren't talking about you." I say enveloping the taller man in a hug. 

_"You weren't?"_

"Of course not. Here, I'll explain everything back at the apartment." I release Eren from the hug and hold out a hand to him. _"Shall we?"_

_He smiles down at me and accepts my hand. "Okay."_


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it has been so long since I last updated but I have lost interest in this story. Please don't hate me. I will finish this story soon because my editor/best friend told to that I shouldn't just leave this story. This story will be ending around chapter 20. Thank you so much for reading. :)

*erens POV*

"Ooh. So you were talking about the game..." Wow I feel really stupid right now.

"Yeah you brat. Why would I ever had said something bad about you." He says with a small smirk.  
"I'm sorry I made such a big deal about it. I guess I was just still worked up from when you went missing." I mumble to myself looking away from Levi's gaze.

"I apologise if I worried you. I just..."

"Just what?" I ask looking up.

"N-Nothing." He responds quickly.  
Hm. I'm not buying it. I squint my eyes at him, wanting him to explain himself.

No. I shouldnt pry. Levi's finally back and we should be having a good time.  
"Hey, can I play with you and Hanji?"

I can tell by the look that flashed across Levi's eyes that he hadn't expected me to ask that out of all questions, but he plays it off. "Hm."

We were currently standing in front of the apartment room door, but before one of us could open the door, Hanji swings it open.  
"So adorable!" She squeals into my ear.  
"Shut up glasses! You're going to wake up the whole building."  
She just laughs and walks back to her place on the couch. "Come on Eren. You're good at Mario Kart right? I need a real challenge." She says shooting a look at Levi. He playfully sticks his tongue out at her, crossing his arms.

I can tell just by there friendly banter that their close. It's nice....  
"Eren! Stop staring off into space and pick a character." I blink once and realise that I'm now holding a Wii controller in my hand and the screen has the character selection menu.

"Wait, I'm playing too."

I look up and watch as Levi walks around the couch and sits next to me, grabbing a controller.

"I hope you two are ready to loose to daisy." Hanji says bouncing up and down in her spot.  
"Yeah? Well prepare to loose to...waluigi." Levi says doing an impersonation of Waluigi's evil laugh.  
Hanji and I break out into laugher at his surprisingly accurate attempt.

"What was that?" I ask after I'm just about done laughing.  
"What? This?" He does another laugh sounding more like a witch than anything and I break out into another fit of laughs. Levi doing this all with a straight expression made it even better.

 

"Alright, I'm going to be...Luigi."  
I announce.

"Which course?" Hanji asks as soon as we're done picking our various vehicles.  
"Do an easy one." Levi comments.

"Okay! Rainbow road it is!"

As soon as the corse starts hanji, Levi, and I are in the lead. We take sharp turns, turning the remotes in our hands, in ways that should be impossible, to do so.

Now in second place, behind Levi, and in front of (surprisingly) Hanji, I run into one of the question blocks and wait for my selected item.

When it stops on a blue turtle shell I can't help but smile deviously. Throwing the shell, it immediately hits Levi, or waluigi, and he spirals out of control. The character spins out of controls as I take the lead. As they usually do when I'm in an eccentric mood, my ears and tail pop out, twitching happily.

"Argh, Eren, move!" I look over at Levi and see him trying to swipe my tail away from his view.

A smile grows on my face when a mastermind plan unfolds in my head.

Scooting a little closer I move my tail in front of his face, trying to block his view. It only worked slightly, almost causing his character to go over the edge of the track on a turn.

But I have to do better if I want to win.

I scoot even closer, now halfway on Levi's lap. "Eren, what are you-" I lean back completely obstructing Levi's view of the screen. Haha, perfect. His character slows down to a stop and Hanji, or Daisy, passes him.

Suddenly I feel fingers tracing up and down my body. And not in the good way. I start laughing as Levi tickles my sides, falling off of his lap. Squirming away from his grasp I get back onto the couch, sitting as far away from him as possible.

A smile still on my face, I turn my attention back to the game and see that my character is currently parked in the middle of the race track. I look at the bottom left corner of the screen and see that I'm in 12th place!

_Dangit! I let my laughter get the better of me! Wait, How did that even happen in a span of a couple seconds?!_

"Having a little trouble over there, Eren?" I glance over at Levi as he lifts a questioning brow at me.

"Leave me alone." I mumble, feeling my cheeks get warm from embarrassment.

Now that my character, was moving again I was determine to at least get to 11th before this last lap finished.

"I have to say I'm disappointed Eren," Hanji says with a laugh, "I thought you would be better than Levi. Guess I'll forever be the champion." She says as Daisy crosses over the finish line with a shiny, golden, 1 in the corner of her screen.

Since Levi was too busy glaring at hanji, I took this moment to lean in close to Levi and quickly peck a kiss on his cheek.  
He quickly turns to me with a look of shock then looks away scowling. I would have thought he was mad if it weren't for the blush dusting his cheeks.

I smile proudly, not caring that I finished the race in last place. Because getting that reaction out of Levi was enough of a win for me.


End file.
